The Cline Center is pleased to announce the 2026-2027 David F. Linowes Faculty Fellows: Assistant Professor Don Casler and Assistant Professor Elisha Cohen, both of the School of Political Science.
The Linowes Faculty Fellowship supports scholars whose work demonstrates the potential to make significant contributions to research and public understanding. This year's fellows exemplify the interdisciplinary and data-driven approach that lies at the heart of the Cline Center's mission, leveraging unique datasets and analytical tools to investigate pressing questions in public policy, governance, and international affairs.
Prof. Casler's project aims to understand why some leaders respond to domestic political violence by becoming more aggressive in foreign policy, while others become more cautious.
To address this puzzle, the study links data from the Cline Center's Coup d'État Project with information about leaders' behavior in international disputes. It also uses the Cline Center's Global News Index and Archer toolkit to analyze trends in media coverage before and after instances of political violence.
Understanding why some, but not all, leaders become more hawkish in these cases holds important implications for international security. The project will provide new insights into how domestic instability shapes international behavior and may help improve our understanding of the conditions under which political violence influences global conflict dynamics.
Professor Cohen's project aims to understand how and when third-party oversight through consent decrees and oversight boards affects police behavior. The ability to hold police accountable for misconduct is a necessary component of a trustworthy and legitimate institution. In recent years, there has been renewed attention to police oversight methods and the changes, if any, they have had on police behavior.
This study will use the Cline Center's SPOTLITE data on police use of force to examine police oversight efforts in Illinois and across the United States. By analyzing the relationship between oversight mechanisms and police behavior, the project seeks to contribute evidence to ongoing discussions about accountability, institutional legitimacy, and public trust in law enforcement.
You can learn more about their projects and the Linowes Fellowship here: https://clinecenter.illinois.edu/get-involved/LinowesFellows