Political science junior Kimberly Pilatovsky joined graduate students and faculty of the Department of Political Science and scholars from around the country at the 2016 meeting of the Southern Political Science Association in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 7-9. Her paper, "De Jure Provisions for Judicial Independence in US States: 1776 to 2015" examined how constitutional protections affecting courts have changed in US state constitutions over time. The paper drew on data she collected under guidance of USC Political Science faculty, and was supported by the Provost's Office, Honors College, and Magellan Scholar program.

Asked about it, she said, "My participation in SPSA was one of my favorite undergraduate experiences to date. Being part of a research project and working on it from the point of its fruition to data collection and finally a conference-ready paper gave me insight into the Political Science discipline that I could never have gotten in a classroom."

Wednesday, February 3, 2016