QSS student published in New York Magazine
Alexander Agadjanian '18, who is pursuing a major in the Program in Quantitative Social Science, recently published an article, Democrats Are Changing Their Minds About Race, and the Youth Are Leading the Way in New York Magazine. The article is an analysis of the role of racial justice in contemporary American politics and, more broadly, the racial climate in the United States. Alexander and his co-author, Sean McElwee, write that, "Young Democrats who were initially wooed by the idea of a post-racial America have likely been strongly influenced by backlash to Donald Trump's race-related rhetoric and the rise of movements like Black Lives Matter and the Dreamers within the past decade."
Every QSS major at Dartmouth must write an honors thesis during his or her fourth year on campus. Alexander's thesis project, which studies how partisans react to policy information, is being supervised by Professor of Government Dean Lacy. All honors thesis writers are guided by QSS Director of Undergraduate Research Sean Westwood. In his New York Magazine article, Alexander demonstrates his skills with the R computing environment, which all QSS students learn as part of their studies. Alexander has taken many R-based classes, including Data Visualization, taught by Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies and Professor of Government Yusaku Horiuchi. Alexander has written a research paper with Professor Horiuchi, which was presented at a conference held at the University of California, Berkeley in August last year.