Summer Research Fellow Spotlight Amina Addington
Informed by Marxist theories of the state, the project theorizes that unregulated free-market capitalism will increase state repression when mediated by high degrees of wealth and income inequality - by-products of market capitalism, and popular violent protest against the state for facilitating such inequities. And violent protest against the state that also threatens capital by impeding its ability to accumulate profit will incentivize state elites to resort to repression. "My proposed method of study is using a structural equation model (SEM) – a multivariate statistical analysis technique – to empirically test my hypothesis that free-market capitalism increases state repression only when it is mediated by income inequality and dissent towards the state."
Q: How did you first get interested in undergraduate research at UK?
A: "I first got interested in undergraduate research at UK by taking a graduate course that Dr. Bartilow taught as it was fueled by research by scholars in the field. Instead of simply discussing theory we also discussed research techniques and the importance of supporting your theory."
Q: How long have you been engaged in undergraduate research?
A: "I have been engaged in undergraduate research for 1.5 years."
Q: Describe what a typical day of remote summer research activity looks like for you. How does this differ from your pre-COVID research activity?
A: "A typical day of remote summer research looks like a lot of time spent at my laptop. Reading journal articles, writing up my research paper, and running statistical models are what my research consists of. This fortunately doesn’t differ from my pre-COVID research activity."
Q: What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?
A: "The most exciting aspect of my research so far was creating a theory of my own based on all the research that I’ve read."
Q: What advice would you give to other UK students thinking about doing research?
A: "Don’t be afraid to ask your professor on any research that you would be willing to work on. They’re there to help you and they love mentoring students."
The UK Office of Undergraduate Research's Summer Research & Creativity Fellowship program provides undergraduates with the opportunity to study in a wide variety of disciplines while doing intensive and self-directed research or creative work under the supervision of a faculty mentor.