We are pleased to announce the Cline Center’s 2025 Schroeder Summer Fellowships. This year, the fellows are:
Larissa Migotto Brandolt - Larissa’s research looks at how the U.S. media covers undemocratic events differently based on media ideology and whether the events happen at home or abroad. She is focusing on the January 6th Capitol attack and the January 8th attack on Brazil’s government buildings. Working with the Global News Index (GNI) and the Archer system from the Cline Center, she will investigate how partisan outlets use different language, assign blame, and frame these events over time. Using framing theory and a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis, she will look at how media narratives shape public opinion and views of democratic stability. This research contributes to the literature on political communication, polarization, and democratic erosion, and offers insights into how the media shapes public response to undemocratic political events.
Do Young Gong - Do Young’s project examines how wartime coup attempts influence civil war dynamics in both the short and long term. Using the Cline Center’s Coup d’État Project Dataset, it first investigates how such coups affect short-term ceasefires and long-term peace agreements of civil wars. Additionally, by drawing on media sentiment scores from the Global News Index and anti-government protest data from the Cline Center’s Historical Phoenix Event Dataset, the project explores how post-coup governments restore stability and how that shapes prospects for civil war resolution. This project expands our understanding of conflict by uncovering the critical role of government instability—often overlooked in civil war studies—and revealing how different forms of violence are deeply interconnected.
The Schroeder Summer Graduate Fellowship Program is made possible by a generous gift from William A. and Paul W. Schroeder. The program aims to enhance the quality of rigorous research on topics that fall within ongoing research programs at the Cline Center by helping graduate students in Political Science at the University of Illinois generate original and publishable research early in their graduate career.