JORDAN DUFFIN WONG
Jordan Duffin Wong is a 4th-year PhD student in the Department of Political Science. He is also a survey reearch affiliate with the Weidenbaum Center. He studies the politics and space of the rural United States.
Where were you born? Where are you from? I'm from Kearney, Nebraska. It's a town of about 30,000 people in Central Nebraska, on the Platte River and Interstate 80. Imagine taking a STL suburb like Kirkwood and dropping it in a corn field: that's pretty much Kearney.
What are you studying? I'm in the fourth year of the Political Science PhD program. My mother is a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Kearney and the proverbial apple got stuck to the tree on the way down. I study a number of topics broadly under the umbrella of "American Politics," including the relationships between rurality, remoteness, and government. I'm also starting work in the space of death and post-death as political phenomena, thinking about how political attitudes and institutions shape the way we handle the care of people who have already died (and vice-versa).
What is a topic you could give a presentation on with no notes? Fun fact: I'm the former Big 10 conference champion in impromptu speaking, which is just giving a presentation with no notes in a competitive setting. The meta-answer then, is a presentation on how to give such a presentation.
What's a trend or story that doesn't get enough attention? Just about anything that the Flatwater Free Press, an independent newsroom in Nebraska, covers. For instance, a really important story they ran in 2022 (and are still covering today), talked about how water treatment negligence in greater Nebraska is contributing to serious public health problems. More broadly, this reflects a trend among national media outlets to reduce "rural America" to some monolithic entity that exists as a strawman for national political problems, and "rural issues" to be some quaint "thing" that is nothing more than a human interest story. Characterizing the rural as a strawman ignores the structure inequality issues facing non-white and non-straight/cisgendered rural Americans.
Whats' your favorite app on your phone? Gonna cheat and pick two: the now-discontinued EA Monopoly app from 2011 and WeCroak, an app that reminds you that you are going to die (along with an "inspiring" quotation) several times per day. Both are excellent.
KEISHA BLANCHARD
Keisha Blanchard is the Human Resource and Payroll Supervisor for the Human Resource cluster in Arts and Sciences. She handles human resources and payroll duties for the Weidenbaum Center.
Where were you born? Where are you from? Born and raised in St. Louis, MO.
What has been one of your favorite events at the Center? I was invited to a staff lunch at the Whittemore House. Beautiful space, delicious food, and the servers were so friendly and professional.
What’s the most interesting place you've ever traveled, and what made it memorable? San Juan Puerto Rico. I went last February, around my birthday, and the weather was 80 degrees there. It felt amazing to wear shorts in the winter.
What's the best book you've read recently? Disruptive Thinking by Bishop T.D. Jakes
What's a trend or story that doesn't get enough attention? The St. Louis City Reparations Commission.
MICHAEL OLSON
Michael Olson, is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and a Weidenbaum Center Resident Fellow. His research and teaching focus on ow electoral and legislative institutions affect legislative representation in the United States. His work draws on a wide variety of data from across American history and different levels of government.
Where were you born? Where are you from? I was born in Geneva, IL (outside Chicago), but grew up in Port Washington, WI (outside Milwaukee).
What is your area of research? How has the Weidenbaum Center supported your research? I study American legislative and electoral politics, with a particular focus on historical data and settings. Weidenbaum Center funding has allowed me to hire research assistants to help with the labor and time- intensive work associated with my research, and additionally providing funding for a research project surveying local government officials.
What’s a talent or hobby you have that not many people know about? While I don't get to do it as often as I'd like, I really enjoy fishing, especially fly-fishing.
What's the best book you've read recently? The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. It's about a Catholic priest being hunted during revolutionary times in southern Mexico. Completely tranported me to a time/place that I wasn't at all familiar with.
What's a trend or story that doesn't get enough attention? Protected Bike Lanes. In terms of quality of life and climate improvement in urban areas, its hard for me to think of anything more impactful than replacing cars with bikes, and protected bike lanes (just with like a concrete curb between cars and bikes), are a cheap and easy way to make biking safe and desirable.
LUCAS BOSCHELLI
Lucas Boschelli is a Ph.D. candidate with a focus on urban politics and political methodology. He recently accepted a position as a Senior Data Scientist at Maritz in St. Louis. He'll be joining their business solutions and data science division once he finishes his research at WashU.
Where were you born? Where are you from? I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico
What are your studying? How did you become interested in the field of study you're involved in? I'm currently studying American Local Politics. Within the umbrella of local politics, I study participation and direct democracy within the country's smallest governments (cities, school districts, etc.). I'm fascinated in what drives people to reach out to their local governments and how local policies and practices can alleviate (or at time exacerbate) historic socio-economic inequities. I actually stumbled into my field. I entered my PhD wanting to study elections, but I could never quite get into the field. After failing to find a good topic for a seminar paper, I stumbled into a series of early local politics papers and quickly became engrossed in the topic.
What’s the best book you've read recently? When part of your job involves combing through countless articles, reading can become a tricky thing to learn to enjoy again. Luckily, I've fallen into the world of audio books and absolutely love it. I'm a huge sci-fi and fantasy geek and just finished second to last book in the Expanse series (Tiamat's Wrath I think?).
What's your favorite app on your phone? I would say my Audible app. While I'm not attached to the app in particular, I use it every day to listen to books and stories. Without out it, my days would be a significantly less interesting.
What is your favorite STL place? I absolutely love the botanical gardens.
ARIELA SCHACHTER
Ariela Schachter, is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Associate Director of the Weidenbaum Center, Executive Committee member of the Weidenbaum Center, and Faculty Affiliate in Asian American Studies. Her research focuses on immigration, race relations, and inequality in the United States. Her current research efforts focus on projects on public attitudes towards immigrants; racial/ethnic relations; and neighborhood selection and residential inequality. She primarily uses experiment and causal inference methods. Professor Schachter additionally uses big data and computation text analysis in her work.
Where were you born? Where are you from? Born in San Diego, CA and grew up in Southern California and later New Jersey.
What’s a talent or hobby you have that not many people know about? I loved to bake.
What’s the best book you’ve read recently? I loved the new Abraham Verghese book (The Covenant of Water)
What's a trend or story that doens't get enough attention? I might be biased because of my research, but I don't think we are paying nearly enough attention to the lack of due process for migrants seeking asylum at the southern border.
What's your favorite app on your phone? I use my NYTimes app every day to wordle..and read the news
