Category: Faculty Research

Martha Fuentes-Bautista, assistant professor of communication and public policy, has received a 2010-2011 Faculty Research/Healey Endowment grant.  The grants are awarded annually as part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement internal grant program, and are designed to promote excellence in research as well as each awardee’s capacity to publish and acquire future outside funding.

Thirty-eight applications were submitted through the Faculty Research/Healey Endowment grant competition this year.  Professor Fuentes-Bautista was one of nine applicants to receive the award.

Support from this grant will enable Fuentes-Bautista to conduct a year-long study, “Examining Impacts of Local Broadband Initiatives on Universal Service Goals.”  The study will evaluate the ability of different local broadband interventions (municipal, community-based, and/or public-private partnerships) to improve the availability and affordability of high-speed Internet services in areas with little or no broadband access.  Ultimately, this research will help to inform state and federal programs charged with advancing broadband coverage, which is increasingly vital for economic development, public health and safety, educational opportunity, and government transparency.

Over the next year, Fuentes-Bautista will gather data from 10 communities in Western Massachusetts to develop indicators for evaluating the scope and impact of local broadband initiatives.  Pilot data will be used to develop predictive models and for applications to federal granting agencies. WesternMA Connect, Inc., a regional nonprofit that supports the deployment of broadband in the western part of the state, will be a collaborator in the research.

Professor Fuentes-Bautista has been at UMass Amherst since 2007 and has research and teaching interests in new media policy, technology and inequality, and global communications.  Her doctorate is from the University of Texas at Austin.

For more information, contact Susan Newton (snewton@pubpol.umass.edu or 413-577-0478)

Jarice Hanson, Professor of Communication and CPPA Faculty Associate, was one of four professors selected to receive a  Microsoft IMPACT Grant for Blended Learning from the Office of Faculty Development and the Center for Teaching at UMass Amherst.

The grant will provide support for introducing new technologies into Prof. Hanson’s COMM 334: Media History and Communication Policy course.  Students will participate in on-line, collaborative activities such as virtual field trips and work to create wikis, podcasts, and blogs based on themes pulled from course materials.

The $10,000 IMPACT Grants are generously funded by Microsoft’s Academic Evangelism Program, with additional support from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the College of  Natural Sciences, and the Provost’s Office.

More information about Jarice’s teaching and research is available through her Communication Department website.

Krista Harper, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Public Policy, was interviewed by Red-Eye Vancouver Cooperative Radio about the effect of recent elections putting right-wing conservatives in power in Hungary, including a subsequent increase in violence against the Roma people.  In  “Growth of far right in Hungary poses danger to Roma,”  Harper, who studies public health and environmental issues of Hungarian Roma (Gypsies) communities, discussed how anti-Roma racism has changed throughout history, the main far right political group in Hungary called Jobbik, and what the recent Hungarian elections mean for the Roma.

Listen to the entire podcast [here]

David Mednicoff, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Associate Director of the Program in Social Thought and Political Economy, will talk about his research on the rule of law in Arab societies as part of an inaugural conference being held at Stanford University on May 10-11, 2010.  The conference, “Political Reform in the Arab World: Problems and Prospects,” will launch a new “Good Governance and Political Reform in the Arab World” program at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

Mednicoff’s talk will focus on his extensive research concerning the roles that legal rights and procedures play in contemporary Arab societies and prospects for political democratization there.  His research has important implications for international relations and US policy.  Mednicoff was a 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholar at the Qatar University and has presented his work to policymakers in Washington at forums sponsored by the Department of State and by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  He is currently conducting research on the regulation of migrant workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as part of a grant from Georgetown University.  He also recently was named Principal Director of a workshop on the comparative politics and law of secularism to be held in 2011 at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Onati, Spain. Mednicoff holds both Ph.D. and law degrees from Harvard University.

The conference at Stanford will feature renowned experts on Arab politics and civil society from around the globe, and will address key themes related to Arab governance and reform, including the role of the military, secular and Islamist political opposition, youth politics, media and public opinion, economic development, and interventions by the international community.

For more information on Professor Mednicoff’s lecture contact Susan Newton (snewton@pubpol.umass.edu or X7-0478).

Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, including Michael Ash, have released the Toxic 100 Air Polluters (http://toxic100.org), an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the United States.

“The Toxic 100 Air Polluters informs consumers and shareholders which large corporations release the most toxic pollutants into our air,” said Professor James Boyce, co-director of PERI’s Corporate Toxics Information Project. “We assess not just how many pounds of pollutants are released, but which are the most toxic and how many people are at risk. People have a right to know about toxic hazards to which they are exposed. Legislators need to understand the effects of pollution on their constituents.”

The Toxic 100 Air Polluters index is based on air releases of hundreds of chemicals from industrial facilities across the United States.  The top five air polluters among large corporations are the Bayer Group, ExxonMobil, Sunoco, DuPont, and Arcelor Mittal.  For the first time, the Toxic 100 Air Polluters includes information on the disproportionate risk burden from industrial air toxics for minorities and low-income communities. This makes it possible to compare corporations and facilities in terms of their environmental justice performance as well as overall pollution.

Users of the web-based Toxic 100 Air Polluters list can view the details behind each company’s Toxic Score, including the names and locations of individual facilities owned by the corporation, the chemicals emitted by those facilities, and the share of the Toxic Score borne by minorities and people living below the poverty line. 

“In making this information available, we are building on the achievements of the right-to-know movement,” explains Professor Michael Ash, co-Director of the Corporate Toxics Information Project. “Our goal is to engender public participation in environmental decision-making, and to help residents translate the right to know into the right to clean air.”

Congratulations to Krista Harper for recieving $149,500  for the implementation of “Cultural Heritage in European Societies and Spaces (CHESS).”  Krista Harper and Jacqueline Urla will direct this three-year International Research Experience for Students (IRES) project that will allow fifteen undergraduate and graduate students from UMass Amherst and the Five Colleges consortium to participate. 

Krista is an Associate Professor of anthropology and CPPA.  Her research includes post-socialist societies, environmentalism and social movements. 

For the complete article on this topic, visit here.

Jane Fountain,  Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, was an invited lecturer on “Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government” at the Dubai School of Government last week. The panel coincided with an Arabic release of a book with the same name.

According to a news release, Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government ” analyzes the shift from the narrow focus of electronic government on technology and transactions to the broader perspective of information government, which includes the information flows within the public sector, between the public sector and citizens, as well as among citizens. ”

Fountain’s discussion focused on the flow of information in bureaucracies and the impact of information technology on public administration. According to Fountain, “information technologies offer spectacular opportunities to the public sector, bringing synergy between the government and the society. Strategic use of information tools enables governments to be more efficient and allows them to be more attentive and responsive to the needs of citizens.”

In addition to the invited panel presentation, Fountain authored a chapter in the book titled “Challenges to Organizational Change: Multi-Level Integrated Information Structures (MIIS)” which explores how information is structured at the micro-, organizational-, and institutional-levels. (See Fountain’s National Center for Digital Government working paper for an earlier version of this work)

In its first publication, the book was edited by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Centre, and David Lazer, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northeastern and Director of the Program on Networked Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Arabic edition also includes editor  Fadi Salem, Fellow at the Dubai School of Government, and Dr. Yasar Jarrar, Partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Research Fellow (nonresident) at the Dubai School of Government.

More information about the book release and panel presentation is available through Al Bawaba.com. Further information about Fountain’s research is available through the National Center for Digital Government.

David Mednicoff, CPPA and legal studies, participated in a “Migrant Labor in the Gulf” working group at Georgetown University’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS).  The working group is made up of academics, experts, and representatives from various governmental, non-governmental and labor organizations.  The group discussed the issue of migrant labor from a broad range of perspectives and gave recommendations for further research.

Mednicoff’s participation in the working group relates to his research project “Migrant Labor and Legal Regulations in Doha and Duba,” which is funded through CIRS. In this project, Mednicoff examines the regulatory policies adopted by Gulf States to manage labor migrant populations. He also compares these policies to those adopted by states in other parts of the world. This work is based on interviews with attorneys, policy consultants, journalists, academics, and government officials in Qatar and the U.A.E.

For more information about the working group, visit CIRS’ website.