From December 7 to 23, W&M's Global Research Institute shared 12 research highlights from 2020, including from IJL on day 4.
Day 1: The Blockchain Lab ran a call for proposals designed to source empirical research on blockchain applications for international development, business adaptation, trade, and supply chains.
Day 2: What happens to early childhood health when developing countries transition away from the most subsidized types of aid? Learn more in a PLOS ONE article written by Ignite Director Carrie Dolan, AidData Research & Evaluation Unit Director Ariel BenYishay, and William & Mary alumna McKinley Saunders '19.
Day 3: Do Chinese loan restructurings favoring lenders or borrowers? A new Center for Global Development and AidData study by Alysha Gardner, Joyce Lin, Scott Morris, and Brad Parks presents a new set of standardized metrics for policymakers to gauge this.
Day 4: Why are truth commissions adopted in some contexts but not others? Why do some possess strong investigative powers while others do not? Kelebogile Zvobgo, Director of the International Justice Lab, tackled these questions in International Studies Quarterly.
Day 5: President-Elect Joe Biden championed bipartisanship during the campaign, but where will bipartisan progress be possible? The experts weighed in with their predictions in a TRIP Project Snap Poll just before the election. Read more in Foreign Policy.
Day 6: How much does the United States collectively contribute annually to Kenya's development? Find out in a first-of-kind report published for the U.S. Department of State by Samantha Custer and her team at AidData.
Day 7: With mentorship from Professors Amy Oakes and Dennis Smith, Project on International Peace and Security Fellows wrote white papers on emerging issues in national security including: transnational repression, global asymmetric ethical standards, weaponized deepfake technology, and a framework to combat authoritarian disinformation. Check out the link to read their papers and watch short video presentations summarizing their findings and recommendations.
Day 8: Center for African Development Co-Director Phil Roessler, Rob Marty ’14, Kyle Titlow ’15, and their co-authors published novel findings on the origins of spatial inequality in Africa, after building the most comprehensive and detailed dataset to date on subnational colonial extraction across 38 countries in Africa. They find that colonialism left much of Africa trapped in a negative feedback loop of weak institutions and spatial inequities. Read about their work on Vox EU.
Day 9: Ariel BenYishay, Director of AidData's Research and Evaluation Unit, recently co-authored two papers in Nature Sustainability; one on how land titling impacts deforestation in the Amazon and another on how land tenure security is essential for sustainability goals. In the first, using geospatial impact evaluation methods developed at AidData, BenYishay found that contrary to popular belief, land titling programs do not reduce deforestation.
Day 10: Today we're celebrating NukeLab's new grant to support the project, "The Past and Future of Nuclear Proliferation." Read more about the work Dr. Jeff Kaplow and his students will undertake.
Day 11: In summer 2020, the ABC Project conducted analysis of its own past research endeavors. These short analyses aimed to improve and inform future research, while also making more accessible ABC Project research to practitioners and policy makers. The project's Bosnian and American co-teaching pairs worked collaboratively to craft summaries and analyses of five previous studies.
Day 12: Earlier this year, Kathryn Floyd, Director of W&M's Whole of Government Center of Excellence and Director of GRI's e-Internship Program, edited the fourth volume of Diplomatic Courier's "Chronicling COVID-19" series of bookazines. In this timely bookazine, GRI alumna Gabrielle Hibbert '17 and Troy Wiipongwii, Director of the Blockchain Lab, published an article. You can find it here.
