Thursday, April 18—It was the day Schar School of Policy and Government undergraduates had been waiting for: Their research posters would finally be displayed and judged, with not just grades at stake, but also the possibility of winning $100.
The exhibition of 33 posters and 10 PowerPoint presentations at the MIX building on George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus was the culmination of semester-long projects undertaken by some 70 Schar School undergraduate students, who, along with faculty members, served as judges.
The topics researched by students participating in the Schar School’s Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) spanned the world and included terrorism, organ trafficking, girls and MS-13, “shadow elites,” military innovation, populism, and suffragettes in Edwardian England.
The poster project, said Government and International Politics major Hadiyyah Abdul-Jalaal, who created a poster study of organ trafficking in Latin America, “taught me to keep going, especially if something doesn’t pop up on your initial research.”
In announcing the winners, Schar School Director of Undergraduate Programs Robert J. McGrath said “the competition was especially keen and there were many runners-up whose posters where very highly rated.”
Here are the 2019 URAP poster competition winners:
- “When do Members of Congress Get Along?” [faculty advisor: Professor Jennifer Victor]—Kelsey Gaudette, Molly Harnish, Molly Reed;
- "Data Collection for Research on Congressional Cooperation" [faculty advisor: Professor Jennifer Victor]—Melissa Alberto, Camden Layton, Sai Pethe;
- “Populism, Nativism, and Economic Uncertainty: A Comparative Approach" [faculty advisor: Professor Delton Daigle]—Kathleen Lackatos.