Fellows 2007-2008

Xun Cao is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. His dissertation research studies networks of international political economy such as trade, transnational capital flows, IGO connections, migration, and how network dynamics at international level can be used to explain behaviors of embedded national economies such as convergence and divergence of domestic economic policies. His substantive research interests also include inter and intra state conflicts and political geography. Xun's research in quantitative methodology focuses on latent space model of network analysis and spatial models. His publications include: "Protecting Jobs in the Age of Globalization: Examining the Relative Salience of Social Welfare and Industrial Subsidies in OECD Countries," with Aseem Prakash and Mike Ward, International Studies Quarterly, June 2007, and "Disputes, Democracies, and Dependencies: A Re-examination of the Kantian Peace," with Mike Ward and Randolph Siverson, American Journal of Political Science, July 2007.

Songying Fang is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. Her research areas are international relations, political economy, applied game theory, and quantitative methodology. Her current research focuses on how international institutions, without strong enforcement mechanisms, can nevertheless influence state behavior. She is also interested in institutions more broadly, and is working on projects that explore security alliance, state building, and US Supreme Court. While at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, she will examine the mechanisms through which international institutions could influence the behavior of non-democracies.

Gerald DiGiusto is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College. He received a Ph.D. in political science from Duke University. His research and teaching focus on international organization, the power and influence of private actors in international cooperation and world politics, the domestic politics of interstate bargaining, United States foreign policy, and the foreign policy behavior of nondemocracies. His current research explores how multinational and domestic producers and consumers shape the evolution and institutionalization of international regulatory regimes, with a particular focus on institution building in international intellectual property and competition policy.

Daniel Kono is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Davis. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the effects of international and domestic institutions on trade policy. His publications include "Optimal Obfuscation: Democracy and Trade Policy Transparency," American Political Science Review, August 2006; "Making Anarchy Work: International Legal Institutions and Trade Cooperation," The Journal of Politics, August 2007; "When Do Trade Blocs Block Trade?," International Studies Quarterly, March 2007; and "Are Free Trade Areas Good for Multilateralism? Evidence from the European Free Trade Association," International Studies Quarterly, December 2002. He is currently working on a book manuscript on the relationship between democracy and trade.

Kevin Morrison is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Duke University. His dissertation focuses on political regime stability and explores the effect of a variety of different revenue sources which are all derived without taxation of society. The argument is that these "non-tax revenues" -- such as foreign aid and income from state-owned oil enterprises -- reduce redistributional pressures in society and therefore lead to greater stability in both dictatorships and democracies. At Princeton, Morrison will be working on converting his dissertation into a book manuscript. He has an M.A. in economics (Duke University), an M.Sc. in development studies (London School of Economics), and a B.A. in political science (Emory University). He also has a background in development policy research, having worked for the Overseas Development Council, the World Bank, and the Center for Global Development.

Ralph Ossa will receive a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science this summer. He will be a joint fellow of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance and the International Economics Section. Ralph's research focuses on international trade and economic development. Currently, he is working on a new theory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which helps in evaluating some core WTO principles from an economic perspective.
Sonal Pandya will recieve a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University in the summer of 2007. Following her fellowship year she will join the faculty of the University of Virginia. Sonal's research examines the intersection of international integration and economic development. Her current research focuses on the regulation of foreign direct investment; other research interests include political risk and financial crises, firm-level studies of political behavior, and global public health.

Joe Wright will receive his PhD in political science at UCLA in June 2007. He also holds an MA in political economy from Washington University (St. Louis, MO). His research interests lie in comparative political economy and international development. His dissertation explains how political institutions, in both dictatorships and democracies, impact the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth in recipient countries, and how aid influences democratization. During his fellowship year, Joe will begin a project that explains why dictators create different types of political institutions, and then examines the impact of authoritarian political institutions on growth, investment, repression, and regime survival.