framing

Idea diffusion

When Black Lives Matter protests exploded in the summer of 2020, they did so on a global scale. Protests around the world invariably had a dual goal: expressing solidarity with the American BLM movement, and linking that movement’s goals to related domestic concerns. I am interested in the international spread of these kinds of political ideas: How are ideas that originate in one context mapped to another situation? How do language barriers affect the diffusion of ideas? And how have social media accelerated and changed the way in which ideas spread?

Photo: Elekes Andor (Wikimedia Commons, 83482595, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Framing migrants and refugees

Migration is a thorny political issue almost everywhere. How are public opinion and policy choices affected by the way people think about migrants? My research looks at whether migrants are thought of differently from refugees or victims of cross-border human trafficking; how the nation of origin of migrants affects attitudes, and how competing perceptions of migrants affect both national policy and international diplomacy (especially within Europe) regarding migrants.

Photo: Mstyslav Chernov (Wikimedia Commons, 43060174, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Ideas, Interests and Foreign Aid

Why do countries give foreign aid? Although many countries have official development assistance programs, this book argues that no two of them see the purpose of these programs in the same way. Moreover, the way countries frame that purpose has shaped aid policy choices past and present. Instead, analyzing half a century of legislative debates on aid in these four countries, this book presents a unique picture both of cross-national and over time patterns in the salience of different aid frames and of varying aid programs that resulted.