PSP Winter 2022

1

THE SYAHIM MAG 

CONTENTS 

WINTER 2022 

FOREWORD 3 

THE CIVIL WAR DISABILITY 

PENSION SYSTEM AND RACIAL 

DISCRIMINATION 4 

The BYU Department 

of Political Science, 

consistent with the aims 

of a BYU education, 

intends to foster 

“Lifelong Learning and 

Service.” 

We hope to provide 

our alumni with 

intelligent, thoughtful 

and sophisticated 

analysis of important 

issues, and to act as 

a catalyst for service 

in our communities, 

neighborhoods, nations 

and the world. 

EVENTS AND PROGRAMS 6 

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER 14 

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS 16 

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS 18 

FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS 20 

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 24 

FACULTY IN THE NEWS 28 

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 30 

Publisher: 

Jay Goodliffe, Chair 

Editor: 

J. Matthew Clarke 

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2 

Graphic Designer: 

Sydney Freeman, 

Abby Meyers, 

Seraphina Johnstun

A Lesson on Discrimination 

from the Civil War 

FOREWORD 

WINTER 2022 

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. Slavery, especially the 

expansion of slavery into territories acquired from the Louisiana Purchase 

and the Mexican-American War, was the central cause of conflict. 

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation 

Proclamation, stating that all persons held as slaves shall be forever free. 

Slavery was officially abolished after the North won the war on April 

9, 1865, and four million enslaved black people were freed. President 

Abraham Lincoln presided over the victory, but did not witness the 

continued inequality. He was assassinated on April 15, 1865 at the Fords 

Theater in Washington, D.C., just six days after the war ended. 

For many, the war ended; for black people, however, discrimination 

had yet to see its conclusion. This issue discusses one of the ways that 

discrimination continued in the Civil War Pension System, despite attempts 

to write a “color-blind” law, and how we might avoid such a result in the 

future. 

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The Civil War Disability Pension System 

and Racial Discrimination 

by Sven Wilson 

THE UNION ARMY PENSION SYSTEM 

(1865-1906) was the nation’s first large-scale 

social insurance program. It began during the 

U.S. Civil War as a tightly controlled system of 

war-related disability compensation that, over 

time, developed into a general disability system 

and, finally, into a broad-based old-age pension 

for almost all Union Army veterans. Indeed, 

the Union Army pension dominated the federal 

budget and the political debates of its day to 

much the same extent as Social Security and 

Medicare do today. At the program’s peak in 

1893, 41.6% of all federal budget expenditures 

were being paid out to military veterans. This 

is how Dr. Sven E. Wilson’s paper, “Prejudice 

& Policy: Racial Discrimination in the Union 

Army Disability Pension System, 1865-1906,” 

published in the American Journal of Public 

Health (2010), begins. 

Given the ubiquitous racial discrimination 

in American life during this era, the de jure 

equality of Blacks and Whites in the disability 

pension system was truly remarkable. Black 

and White veterans were subject to the same 

eligibility requirements and received the same 

schedule of benefits. It seemed that the racial 

discrimination prominent in official military 

4 

4 

practices during the war did not carry over into 

the statutes and regulations governing the new 

pension system. But what were the de facto 

experiences of Blacks and Whites in the pension 

system? Could such a system achieve racial 

parity in a world where racial prejudice was so 

pronounced? In this study, Sven used original 

data sources on over 40,000 Union Army 

veterans to systematically compare the treatment 

of Black and White veterans by the pension 

system. 

The seeds of the discrimination were planted 

during the war. Black soldiers who were 

sick and injured were much less likely to be 

hospitalized, which left them without the 

documentation they later needed to prove that 

their disabilities were war-related. The lack of 

medical records, combined with other challenges 

Blacks faced as a result of their poverty, 

illiteracy, and history of enslavement, put them 

at a considerable and immediate disadvantage in 

obtaining pension support. 

In 1890, the law was formally liberalized 

to eliminate the need for wartime medical 

records, and the enrollment rate for Blacks 

increased dramatically. However, even after

1890, Blacks still faced the same difficulties 

as before in applying for pensions. They also 

faced obstacles in getting the Pension Bureau to 

approve their claims, particularly if they were 

for conditions that required a “benefit of the 

doubt.” Furthermore, widows and dependents 

of veterans also encountered discrimination 

in gaining pensions (although only veterans’ 

“invalid pensions” were analyzed here). In sum, 

race-neutral policies gave Blacks a measure 

of financial assistance and dignity, but the 

larger potential of the pension program was 

systematically undermined by the systemic 

prejudice of human actors. 

Black veterans did not emerge from the Civil 

War with as many obvious battle injuries as their 

White counterparts, nor did they serve as long. 

Nonetheless, their service was significant, and 

the burdens of disease and injury they faced 

over the course of their lives were profound. The 

pension assistance received by Black veterans 

was a financial lifeline to them, as well as to 

their families and communities. But in this, 

as with so many other matters, Black veterans 

were not given their fair share. Even though 

the eligibility requirements were “colorblind,” 

Blacks, often illiterate and impoverished, faced 

numerous obstacles in applying for a pension. 

The colorblind policy experiment teaches 

two critical lessons. First, the law made few 

allowances for the obstacles that Blacks faced 

as a result of the conditions of their previous 

treatment—namely, living under slavery 

and the segregated, unequal treatment they 

received while serving their country during 

the war. Second, a measure of discretion and 

judgment is necessary and even desirable in 

administering any public program. A greater 

measure of discretion allotted to program 

officials inherently carries a greater opportunity 

for prejudice to govern the program’s outcomes. 

Finding the right balance between the benefits 

of bureaucratic discretion and the potential for 

abuse should be an essential aspect of program 

design if we desire equal treatment under the 

law for all citizens. 

5 

5

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 

AND POLITICAL BELIEF 

EVENTS AND 

PROGRAMS 


AND POLITICAL BELIEF: 

HOW DOES POLITICS AFFECT 

OUR ATTITUDES AND 

RELATIONSHIPS? 

Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, 5 PM in the 

Education in Zion Auditorium 

Despite being rooted in the present, 

American politics is about what 

hasn’t happened yet. And as such, 

politicians have to find a balance 

between what people need now and how policies could affect our needs in the long run. The 

most difficult balance to find and maintain is the equilibrium between freedom and security. 

Most citizens agree that politicians should not regulate speech, but other than that belief, 

nothing is certain except that secure democracy depends on truth. 

A question that has been debated time and time again is whether one party is better than the 

other. The received answer was that both parties are biased to some extent. We claim to be 

neutral, but when a position arises that could make our party look good--or make the other 

party look bad--we are happy to claim partisan biases and “dethrone” the other party. This 

abundant hostility is what makes our current day a bad time to be in politics. It also makes 

discovering and expressing informed opinions difficult. Critical thinking is irrelevant when 

one votes for a party simply to make the “other side” lose. If someone has made no effort to 

create an informed belief system, it is hard to talk with them about the truth. 

Despite the venomous nature of our current system, politics is still a way to do good. It is not 

the most effective way, but it is possible. Some suggestions on how to accomplish this are 

doing politics in a way that uplifts the debate; run in a positive way; and believe that things 

will get better and that the fever of negativity currently plaguing politics will pass. 

Though politics can do some good in the world, they cannot be a surrogate for religion. 

Religion should be the forefront example and most effective method of doing good; politics 

are a supplement for the good that can be accomplished by religion, rather than an alternative. 

Please be involved, Jeff Flake said at the end. We need good people to put the national good 

over self-interest. Let good people know they are doing good. 

The auditorium was filled to capacity, standing room only, and the discussion was interesting 

with some fun moments. Notable attendees 

included Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona; 

Cate Klundt, Government Affairs Director 

at the Utah Association of Realtors; and Dr. 

Christopher Freiman, Associate Professor of 

Philosophy at William and Mary. BYU Poli 

Sci’s Ryan Davis organized and conducted 

the event, which was sponsored by the 

Sorensen Center for Moral and Ethical 

Leadership. 

6 

6 

Thank you, Ryan, for a wonderful event.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR 

DEIDRE HENDERSON 

FINDING OUR "WHY," THE RETURN UTAH PRO- 

GRAM, AND OTHER INSIGHTS 

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, 11 AM, 250 KMBL 

Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson spoke 

on Thursday, October 14, 2021, in the Kimball Tower 

on BYU campus. Her speech, which featured points 

on nontraditional studenthood, how she balances 

family and career, and more, was sponsored by the 

Women of the College of FHSS. 

Some highlights of her talk include her advice that 

we “Find our ‘Why’” to remind ourselves of our 

motivating reasons. She also advised us to not take 

ISSUE 

EVENTS AND PROGRAMS 

31 

7 

counsel from our fears. Many people put plans on hold for a family and then feel like an 

“imposter” when they recommence their lives. When asked about “Imposter Syndrome,” she 

responded that we should be open about how we feel, remind ourselves that our value is inherent 

regardless of education, and remain true to ourselves. 

Her greatest accomplishment, she said, was becoming a mom. She has five kids. Because of 

her experience reentering the workforce after a family, she started the “Return Utah” program 

for those returning to the workforce after life’s detours. The program, which is 16 weeks long 

and offers opportunities for adults returning to the workforce after an extended absence, can be 

found on the Utah Governor's website. 

When asked about her most helpful skills, Henderson responded seriously, “acting class.” Many 

times, we put on brave faces when all we want to do is hide. Public speaking, she said, is also a 

critical skill. We need to learn how to appear confident despite our fear, and learn to listen. More 

helpful skills included learning how to use negative feelings in a positive way, and finally, to 

simply pray. Faith and politics, according to her, are not hard to use together. Faith is who you 

are; people elect you knowing about it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. 

She also reminded us that opportunities are often menial: “Opportunity is often missed because 

it comes dressed in overalls.” When we are focused on other things, we can unintentionally 

become blind to new possibilities. Her advice was to get proximate--to be open to see everything 

that is happening. In closing, she said we need to first find our role models, and then become role 

models ourselves. 

Thank you for an insightful presentation, Lieutenant Governor Henderson. 


7


AND POLITICAL BELIEF 

THE BYU 

POLITICAL SCIENCE POSTER CONFERENCE 

2021 

EVENTS AND 

PROGRAMS 

The BYU Political Science Poster Conference occurred on December 9, from noon to 3 PM, in 

the Wilkinson Center Garden Court. The Conference was a success this year, highlighting the 

scholarship of 64 students. Experiential learning like this benefits the students, who learn how 

to present their ideas in the public format. The award winners and honorable mentions are listed 

on the next page, but everyone who participated is a winner. Thank you and congratulations. 

We also want to thank our two official judges, Liz McGuire and Chad Nelson, and Ryan Davis, 

who acted as a third unofficial judge. Thank you to all the faculty that worked with the students 

to produce this research. And a special thanks to Jay Goodliffe, who founded this event five 

years ago, and to Joel Selway, his successor, for hosting this year. 

8 

8

1 st 2 nd 

"Evangelical Protestants: Friend or Foe?" ($300) 

Ashlan Gruwell 

Overall Winners 

"Tried and Prejudice: Using Hate Crime 

Sentencings to Disprove the Rise of Right-Wing 

Terrorism in the United States" ($250) 

Madison Sinclair Johnson 

3 rd 

"Be Thou Sexist? Hostile & Benevolent Sexism 

Among Latter-day Saints" ($200) 

Abigail Ryan, David Clove 

ISSUE 

31 

9 

Subfield winners ($150 each): 

Best Comparative Paper: "How do Emigration 

Rates Affect the Democracy Score of the Home 

Country?" Elliana Pastrano 

Best IR Paper: "Tanks and Missiles: The Only 

Counterterrorism Strategy?" Peyton Lykins 

Best American paper: "To Guide Us in These 

Latter-days: When Partisans disagree with the 

Church's guidance" Kelsey Eyre, Jordan Gygi, and 

Kesley Townsend 

Best Race and Ethnicity Paper: "Intersectional 

Constituents: How Minority Elected Officials Respond 

to Minority Constituents." Suzy Yi 

Honorable mentions: 

“Ideologues in the Political Pipeline: Measuring 

the Ambition of Local Elected Officials” 

Grant Baldwin & Chris Vazquez 

“Are Supreme Court Decisions Congruent with 

Public Opinion on Campaign Finance?” 

Kesley Townsend 

“Polarization Through a Generational Lens” 

Jeremy Pratt, Clara Cullen, Hannah Forsyth 

“Does Clothing Make the Candidate? 

Identifying the Impact of Traditional Immigrant 

Clothing on Elections” 

Elle Diether, Megan Cann, 

and McKell McIntyre 

“The Failure Effect: Gender and Benevolence in 

Sports” 

Abby Woodfield, Morgan Rushforth, Meg Price, 

Sam Ames 


9

MAJOR BRENT TAYLOR 

FOUNDATION GALA 

EVENTS AND 

PROGRAMS 

THE 

Major Brent Taylor Foundation 

GALA 

The opening reception for the Brent Taylor Leadership 

Legacy Gala was held on Saturday, November 6, 2021. 

Among the honored scholarship attendees were three 

BYU students: Kray Jubeck and Zeke Peters (recipients 

this year), and Harrison Mayer (last year). Each recipient 

and his wife stood next to a large poster that had their 

photos and information about them. Harrison and Kray 

were in full military dress. Our Department Chair, Dr. Jay 

Goodliffe, and his wife, also attended. 

The Major Brent Taylor foundation is a registered 

501(c)3 charitable organization that aims to embody the 

legacy of leadership that Major Brent Taylor left behind. 

This scholarship was established in 2021 to honor Major 

Brent Taylor, who was killed in action on November 3, 

2018 while training an Afghan Army commando battalion 

in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

Brent served as student body president at Chandler High 

in 1996 – 1997. He was a soldier in the Utah National 

Guard and the Mayor of North Ogden, Utah at the time 

of his combat death. The organization provides scholarships 

to students that show outstanding service oriented 

leadership. In addition to funding scholarships, the organization 

is committed to honoring our nation's Gold Star 

& Surviving Families, Veterans, and military families by 

funding monuments across Utah. 

Contributions can be sent to the the Brent and Jennie Taylor 

Family Endowed Scholarship Fund: 

LDS Philanthropies 

Attn: Brent Sharp 

1450 N. University Ave. 

Provo, UT. 84604 

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10

What's Going On in Afghanistan? 

Four of the BYU Political Science department's 

Middle East experts answered this 

question in a Q&A panel on Thursday, 

Nov. 11, 2021, at 7pm in the JFSB Education 

in Zion Auditorium. Professors Josh 

Gubler, Tyler Pack, David Romney and 

Chad Nelson also discussed U.S. intervention 

in, and the current situation of, the 

Afghanistan region. 

Among other things, one important point 

was that Afghanistan acted as a buffer 

between the British Empire and the Russian 

Empire for many years. The country 

is characterized by low levels of literacy, 

lack of minority rights, and 80% of the 

country is rural. In the metropolitan center 

of Kabul, women were developing rights, 

while in the rural areas, women have few 

rights. The U.S. occupation was hampered by the lack of clear goals, and most 

of the illiterate citizens did not know why the U.S. was there. Neither the U.S. 

nor any other imperial power has succeeded in building a modern Afghani 

state, and therefore Afghanistan is characterized by instability, which needs to 

be rebuilt from the inside out. 

ISSUE 


31 

11 

Afghanistan locals look 

on as Afghan National 

Security Forces lead a 

joint patrol with 

Coalition Forces in the 

village of Spine Gundey, 

Gelan district, Ghazni 

province, Afghanistan, 

May 10, 2012. 


11

2021 AMERICAN 

FAMILY SURVEY 

The American Family Survey 

Who is most interested in marriage and having kids? 

EVENTS AND 

PROGRAMS 

12 

12 

HALEY AND BROOKSTON JEPPSON, 

29 and 27 respectively, have a 2-yearold 

son and welcomed a daughter in late 

November. She’s put her master’s degree 

in math education to work owning a small 

virtual math tutoring company. He’s currently 

in school full time. 

The Jeppsons fall into the age group most 

apt to believe marriage is old-fashioned or 

unnecessary for a family to flourish. But 

that’s not their view. 

“I think there’s a level of commitment that 

comes with marriage that isn’t there with 

cohabitation,” Haley said. “I also think that 

kids’ happiness and health and security 

comes a lot from the quality of the parents’ 

relationship.” 

Americans and the institution of marriage 

have historically been a love story. Most 

American adults believe marriage is key 

to forging strong families. However, not 

all young adults share Jeppson’s faith 

that being legally married matters. Young 

adults seem less committed to the concept 

of marriage than they were in 2015, when 

the Deseret News and BYU’s Center for 

the Study of Elections and Democracy 

first teamed up to conduct the American 

Family Survey. The nationally representative 

poll conducted by YouGov looks 

at attitudes about family life against a 

background of current events. 

The new study exposes a growing divide 

when it comes to post-COVID-19 family 

formation. Compared to other groups, 

more young adults view marriage as 

old-fashioned and out-of-date, although 

more than half agree the institution makes 

families and children better off. In younger 

generations, marriage has shifted from 

being a cornerstone on which family life 

could be built to a capstone accomplished 

only after checking off a list of other life 

experiences–if one chooses to marry at 

all. 

More adults generally agreed that being 

legally married is less important than 

having a “personal sense of commitment 

to your partner,” nearly 48% compared to 

31%. But all age groups agree that marriage 

makes families and children better 

off financially, including close to half of 

the 18- to 29-year-olds. And more of them 

agree “marriage is for life, come what 

may,“ though in smaller shares than those 

of other ages. 

Asked if marriage is more of a burden 

than a benefit to families, nearly 62% disagreed 

at least somewhat. Among young 

adults 18 to 29, 51% at least somewhat 

disagree that marriage is a burden. How-

The American Family Survey is an annual, nationwide study of 3,000 

Americans by the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at 

Brigham Young University and the Deseret News. 

BYU Professors Jeremy Pope and Chris Karpowitz participate in and 

author the annual survey. 

ever, 17% agree– a higher percentage of 

agreement than among older adults, who 

largely feel marriage is needed to create 

strong families. 

“Among younger generations, we’re 

definitely seeing some important social 

changes,” said demographer and Institute 

for Family Studies research fellow 

Lyman Stone. “We’re seeing less attachment 

to marriage, and to some extent, 

smaller family desires.” 

That view of marriage is 

concentrated within the young adults, 

echoed Jeremy C. Pope, who co-directs 

the BYU center with Christopher F. 

Karpowitz. The duo co-wrote the American 

Family Survey report. “If you look 

across the young-adult spectrum, in 

2015, 1 in 10 said [marriage is outdated]. 

Now it’s 2 in 10. That’s a significant 

jump. 

“I don’t want to oversell it, but there is 

a hint that attitudes toward marriage are 

changing,” Pope concluded. 

The 2021 American Family Survey represents the 

seventh annual effort from the team of experts to 

understand the state of public opinion about the 

American family and the experiences of American 

families. 

Fielded between June 25 and July 8, 2021, last 

year’s survey came at a relative low point in 

COVID cases, prior to the widespread Delta variant 

wave and before families sent their children back 

to school. Questions in the survey relate back to the 

American family’s experience with the pandemic 

and their evaluations of government responses to 

it, as well as 2020’s protests around the issues of 

racial equality and policing. The results show both 

challenges and resilience in the face of pandemic 

difficulties. 

The 2021 survey was released Tuesday, October 

12, 2021 from Washington, D.C. The margin of 

error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.See: 

https://csed.byu.edu/; and the Deseret News article 

by Lois M. Collins@Loisco Oct 18, 2021, for 

more. 

ISSUE 


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13

POLITICAL 

RALPH 

WALDO 

EMERSON 

14 

PHILOSOPHER

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 

– April 27, 1882), was an American essayist, 

lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet 

who led the transcendentalist movement of the 

mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion 

of individualism and a prescient critic of the 

countervailing pressures of society, and he 

disseminated his thoughts through dozens of 

published essays and more than 1,500 public 

lectures across the United States. 

A quintessential American voice, Emerson 

believed that civilization was only beginning 

and could reach unfathomable places through 

moral force and creative intelligence. This 

alone, however, is not a reason to blindly 

follow the footsteps before us. Remembering 

that “the law is only a memorandum” gave rise 

to Emerson’s most popular quote in this essay: 

“The less government we have, the better.” 

Emerson believed that an ideal government, 

aside from a nonexistent one dissolved when 

improvements in human character through 

love and wisdom could abolish the state, 

was one that advocated for the growth of 

the individual, and be able to protect one’s 

individual rights. The individual would 

only be ready for democracy when they 

had become completely independent and 

self-reliant. Then the abolishment of 

government could be achieved. The 

intelligence needed from each individual 

would triumph over business interests and 

politics, because the mind is the richest 

asset you can have. 

Emerson also questioned property rights 

in politics, noting that they are built not 

on democracy, but instead on owning. 

Believing that “property will always follow 

persons," Emerson believed personal rights 

were much more important than property 

rights. 

By 1844, Emerson, then 41, had moved 

into a pragmatic balance of skepticism 

and idealism, happily providing him with 

“a way to dream as well as a way to live.” 

Emerson’s views on politics championed 

democracy and individualism, two ideas 

that we view today as the very embodiment 

of America. 

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_ 

Waldo_Emerson; Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 

and Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1990. Essays : 

First and Second Series. 1st Vintage 

Books/The Library of America ed. Vintage 

Books. 

ISSUE 

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER 

31 

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15

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS 

Bethany Linton 

Bethany Linton’s area of expertise is Environmental 

Governance. She works with the World Bank in Washington, 

DC as a consultant, and previously led analysis and publication 

of the Climate Smart Agriculture Investment Package Report 

for 13 countries across Africa and elsewhere. This study 

supports the development and piloting of a new framework 

for monitoring and valuing soil organic carbon sequestration. 

Bethany is a program manager, landscape convener, and gender 

analyst with a passion for collaborative and sustainable forest, landscape, and agricultural 

land management. Her interests lie in enhancing participatory land planning, natural resource 

management, and livelihood improvement through bottom-up processes. 

She graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a Master’s 

Degree in Environmental Science, after receiving her BA in Political Science, International 

Development, Political Philosophy and Art History at BYU. In her undergraduate work, 

she participated in the BYU Political Affairs Society, Sigma, the Tocqueville Society, the 

Washington Seminar and worked with an NGO in Uganda. 

David Trichler 

David works with research labs and internal and external partners 

to bring the best of academia to current global policy challenges. 

His main responsibilities involve strategic planning, external 

engagement, and cross-cutting initiatives. 

Trichler served as director of operations at William & Mary’s 

Institute for the Theory & Practice of International Relations, 

where he was responsible for catalyzing applied research by 

faculty and students to address global challenges. 

Previously, Trichler worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, USAID, ExxonMobil Foundation, 

and the World Bank. He is a TedX speaker, a lucky husband to an insanely talented wife, and 

father of two young daughters who love dogs, cheese, and their parents, in that order. The 

running trails behind Lake Matoaka are his favorite place on W&M Campus. He holds an MS 

in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a BA in Political Science from Brigham 

Young University. 

16

Rob Waller 

Rob Waller is an expert in U.S. foreign policy in the 

Middle East and works for the U.S. Department of State. 

Waller, formerly the US State Department’s Director of 

the Office of Iraq Affairs, has taken office as the new 

consul general of the United States in Erbil, the capital 

of Kurdistan Region. The US Consulate General in 

Erbil welcomed Waller in an online statement, saying 

that he had assumed charge of the consulate on 1st July. 

The statement also confirmed that Katie Kiser has been 

appointed as the new Deputy Principal Officer at the consulate. “Over the next few months, 

they look forward to exploring the rich culture of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region while also seeking 

out meaningful ways to collaboratively build upon our shared values of peace, security, and 

economic prosperity,” reads the statement. 

ISSUE 

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS 

31 

17 

A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Waller previously served as the Director of the 

Office of Iraq Affairs and as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iraq and Iran.Prior to 

joining the Iraq office, he was Minister-Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at the 

U.S. Mission to the United Nations at Geneva (2015-2018) and spent his last year there as 

Acting DCM. He was the U.S. Consul General in Dubai (2012-2015) and served as Director 

for Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian Affairs at the NSC (2011-2012). His other overseas 

assignments include Paris, Baghdad, Jerusalem, FSI Tunisia, and Jeddah. 

Garrett Gibson 

Garrett Gibson has worked in various projects through his 

business management career. Notable companies include 

Panum Group, where he assisted in designing a stellar tool 

that further utilized space management. 

Garrett currently works as a senior consultant at Morgan 

Franklin Consulting in Washington, D.C. While working as a 

consultant, he leads teams to enhance operational 

effectiveness, execute cost-cutting strategies, and adopt new 

technologies to improve the efficiency of finance and procurement functions. 

He graduated from BYU with a bachelor's degree in PoliticalScience and Business 

Management, and later received his MBA from the Georgetown University McDonough 

School of Business. 


17

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS 

Ashlan was awarded first place and $300 at 

the annual Political Science Poster 

Conference, with a poster entitled: "Evangelical 

Protestants: Friend or Foe?" ($300). 

As a political science major, Ashlan has 

focused her studies on elections, sexism, 

and national politics, and thus her research 

reflects all of those interests. 

As a result of the research of other political 

scientists and religious scholars, she theorized 

that evangelical Protestants have a negative 

effect on the election of female state 

legislators because of the religious tradition's 

beliefs that a woman is not fit to lead, which 

led to her research question: What is the 

effect of a state’s percent of evangelical Protestants 

on the percent of females within the 

state’s legislature? Through her analysis, and 

with the help of Professor Monson, she was 

able to support that theory. Her results show 

that the percent of evangelical Protestants 

in a state will have a statistically significant 

negative effect on how many women are in 

ASHLAN GRUWELL 

First Place, 

2021 Political Science Poster Conference 

Winning Poster: "Evangelical Protestants: 

Friend or Foe?" 

that state's legislature. 

Outside of her school work, Ashlan 

volunteers in the Brigham Young 

University Student Association as the Director 

of Club Events. The BYUSA office 

is one of her favorite places on campus and 

volunteering has allowed her to meet other 

students, gain experience, and take part in 

unique activities and events. 

In her free time, she loves to relax with her 

friends and watch movies, play games, make 

food, and get ice cream. She also loves to 

listen to music at full volume, especially 

when she's driving her car or is home alone. 

She is from from Harborcreek, 

Pennsylvania, and is currently living in 

Washington D.C. as part of BYU's 

Washington Seminar program. 

18 

18

MADISON SINCLAIR JOHNSON 

Madison (Maddie) is a brand-new BYU 

alumna who graduated in December 

with a degree in political science and a 

minor in communications. Despite barely 

passing POLI 328, she loved the program 

and especially enjoyed all the research 

opportunities. 

Most recently, Maddie was awarded 

second place at the Political Science 

Poster Conference for her research 

project “Tried and Prejudice: Using Hate 

Crime Sentencing to Disprove the Rise 

of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United 

States.” By reasearching the Global 

Terrorism Database's counts of right-wing 

terrorism in the U.S. from 2002-2019, she 

found that about 70% of the 167 cases 

should not be classified as terrorism. At 

least 22% of the events were actually 

hate crimes, and with the solving and 

prosecution of more cases, it could be 

as high as 44%. Based on this research, 

while right-wing terrorism isn't truly on 

the rise in the U.S., hate crimes are. 

MEGAN BAIRD 

Megan is a Political Science 

Major who is the communications 

coordinator for the Political Affairs 

Society here at BYU. Megan 

is from Reston, Virginia (a few 

minutes outside of D.C.). She loves 

the outdoors; she’ll hike, climb, 

bike or ski. In a non-COVID world, 

she loves to travel. She’s made it to 

all 50 states! 

She does a lot of New York Times 

crossword puzzles, and has a 

secret talent for trivia games. As 

a student at BYU, she’s been able 

to work as a research assistant in 

the department. It’s been such an 

amazing learning opportunity! 

She’s also an officer in the BYU 

Political Affairs Society, where 

she runs the advertising and social 

media pages. 

ISSUE 

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS 

31 

19 

Maddie is from Zionsville, Indiana, and 

now works for Ballotpedia as a News 

Researcher. Her interests include roller 

skating, house plants, and true crime. 


19

SVEN WILSON, 

TYLER PACK 

FACULTY 

SPOTLIGHTS 

Professor Sven Wilson received a PhD 

in economics from the University of 

Chicago, and he has been in the Political 

Science Department at BYU since 

1997. He studies the demographic correlates 

of health over the life cycle in 

both modern and historical populations. 

He has published in a wide range of 

scholarly outlets on various aspects of 

health and social inequalities, especially 

with respect to race, gender and family 

structure. He has been a Senior Investigator 

on the NIA-funded program 

project, Early Indicators, Intergenerational 

Processes, and Aging, which is a 

data collection project based on a large 

sample of white and black Union Army 

veterans, and has published several 

papers based on this data. 

Early in in his career, Wilson published 

two of the seminal articles on what 

would come to be known as the spousal 

concordance in health, a topic of study 

that has expanded to include hundreds 

of published articles by both social 

scientists and biomedical researchers. 

In these oft-cited studies he shows that 

the health status of married persons 

mirrors significantly the health status 

of the spouse, using a variety of health 

indicators. Moreover, he shows that the 

occurrence of health problems in both 

spouses is highly concentrated among 

couples with low socioeconomic status, 

further compounding the economic 

consequences of poor health. 

20 

20 

Sven Wilson 

Expert in history, 

social and political sciences, 

and economics 

Wilson’s interest in social disparities in health has 

led to other research on social capital, including 

family relationships. Very little social science 

research has been able to follow individuals and 

social networks over time, so relatively little is 

known about the long-term persistence of human 

capital. Using the data on Union Army veterans, 

Wilson’s team demonstrated that Civil War 

veterans formed long-lasting social networks, as 

evidenced by their choice to live near Civil War 

comrades many years later. They also found that 

living near a former comrade had a beneficial 

effect on life expectancy. 

Using more modern data, Wilson’s recent research 

has investigated the impact of military 

service on participation in civic groups such as 

service clubs, fraternal organizations or unions. 

Wilson’s research finds that the veterans of major 

20th century conflicts participated in more groups 

and with greater intensity than non-veterans. 

Furthermore, this effect of military service is 

largely independent of the impact of education on 

civic participation. 

Wilson served for many years as director of the 

Masters in Public Policy program at BYU and 

was chair of the Political Science Department 

from 2014-2021. He currently teaches large sections 

of American Heritage as well as methodology 

and public policy courses in the department. 

In his spare time, Wilson enjoys downhill skiing 

and watching BYU Women’s Volleyball with his 

wife, Nancy. He and Nancy are the parents of six 

children and live in Provo.

Dr. Tyler Pack specializes in civil wars 

and ethnic conflicts, civil-military 

relations, and authoritarian regimes. 

In particular, he explores how violent 

conflict influences the decision making of 

political leaders, military elites, and the 

public in neighboring states. 

After living in five different states by 

the age of five, Tyler grew up in Utah, 

graduating from Northridge High School 

in 2003. He became interested in politics 

the traditional professor way – researching 

topics for high school debate. The 

September 11th attacks (and subsequent 

invasion of Afghanistan) happened when 

he was a junior, and the U.S. invaded Iraq 

three months before he graduated. U.S. 

military action and civil conflict were 

very much on his mind. While serving 

a mission in Russia, he observed the 

reaction of leaders and the public to a 

host of political events, including terrorist 

attacks carried out by Chechen separatists 

such as the hostage-taking and botched 

rescue attempt at a school in Beslan in 

2004. 

Realizing the importance of perception 

and exposure, as well as having a personal 

connection to political events, helped 

solidify his intentions to teach and study 

international relations. He received a 

Dr. Tyler Pack 

Expert in civil wars, 

civil-military relations, 

and authoritarian regimes 

bachelor’s and master’s degree at Utah State 

with a focus on Russian foreign policy. During 

his undergraduate work, he met his wife, and 

they had their first child while in Logan. They 

had three more children in Illinois, where 

Tyler attended graduate school for a PhD 

before coming to BYU as a visiting professor 

in 2019. 

As a teacher, Tyler’s approach focuses on 

frequent discussions, maximizing student 

engagement, exploring political events 

through simulations and cases, and sharing 

moderately dated pop culture references. At 

BYU he has taught Principles of International 

Relations, Civil Wars and Ethnic Conflict, 

International Intervention, and U.S. Foreign 

Policy. 

Tyler’s research focuses on the spillover 

effects of civil war in democratic and 

authoritarian regimes from World War II to the 

present. Some of his current projects include 

a study of how the unique threat environment 

of a nearby civil war presents a window 

for coup-proofing by political elites, and a 

project involving how individuals respond 

to proximate conflict with support for extraconstitutional 

measures by or against the 

regime. 

ISSUE 

31 

FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS 

21 


21

FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS 

22 

22 

Gentry Jenkins is a visiting professor 

of Political Science who recently 

finished his PhD at the University 

of Chicago in 2020. Previously, he 

received an MA in International 

Relations from Chicago in 2014, and a 

BA in History from the University of 

Idaho in 2012. 

Gentry grew up in Troy, Idaho, a small 

town of less than 1,000 people. For 

the neighboring town of Moscow, his 

dad was the institute director of the 

first-ever LDS Church for the Moscow 

Institute of Religion. He attended 

the University of Idaho and majored 

in history, a topic he considered 

interesting. Gentry, along with Dr. Lisa 

Carlson, wrote about China’s decision 

to enter the Korean War despite being 

a new country at the time. They 

thought to ask: why do revolutionary 

states go to war? 

After doing a lot of research and 

writing, along with being denied 

acceptance to multiple History PhD 

programs, Gentry discovered that his 

interests in history were primarily 

theoretical. However, he was offered 

a partial scholarship in International 

Gentry Jenkins 

Expert in history, 

international security, 

revolutionary regimes, 

and archival research 

Relations at the University of Chicago. 

At Chicago, he worked with Robert Pape, a 

scholar on the logics of coercion in IR, air 

power, and terrorism. Professor Pape directed 

his Masters Thesis and PhD at Chicago. Pape 

has done research on the rise of territorial 

disputes, especially on Ethiopia’s civil war 

in the 1970s and 80s. Jointly, Pape and 

Gentry conducted research discovering that 

peripheral groups in Ethopia rebel against 

state centralization and transformational 

policies. Tensions exist between the Ethiopian 

government and its ethnic tribes: the Aromo, 

Emhara and Tigray specifically. Each of the 

tribes has cultural traits that identify them, 

but not necessarily their heritage, making the 

tension more complicated. 

Upon graduation from Chicago, Gentry was 

hired by Chicago to a two-year post doc to 

advise Masters students. He worked there for 

one year, then was invited to become a visiting 

professor at BYU. His research interests include 

international security, revolutionary regimes, 

civil wars, and archival research. 

Gentry met his wife Liz in her native Chicago; 

they had both been seminary teachers and had a 

lot in common. Now they have two daughters: a 

four-year-old and a nine-month-old baby.

ISSUE 

31 

23 

THE SYAHIM MAG

AJPS, FIRST 

POLITCAL ORDER 

How Politicians Discount the 

Opinions of Constituents with 

Whom They Disagree 

Daniel M. Butler, Adam M. Dynes 

FACULTY 

PUBLICATIONS 

We argue that politicians systematically discount the opinions of constituents with whom 

they disagree and that this “disagreement discounting” is a contributing factor to ideological 

incongruence. 

A pair of survey experiments, in which state and local politicians are the subjects of interest, 

show that public officials rationalize this behavior by assuming that constituents with 

opposing views are less informed about the issue. This finding applies both to well-established 

issues that divide the parties as well as to nonpartisan ones. 

Further, it can be explained by politicians’ desires to favor the opinions of either copartisans 

or likely voters. A third survey experiment using a sample of voters suggests that the 

bias toward favorable constituents is exacerbated by an activity central to representative 

governance—taking and explaining one's policy positions. To sum, the representative job 

itself can cause an increase in the likeliness to dismiss voters with dissenting opinions. 

24 

24

The First Political Order: How 

Sex Shapes Governance and 

National Security Worldwide 

Donna Lee Bowen 

Donna Lee Bowen’s new book, "The First 

Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance 

and National Security Worldwide," has been 

mentioned in the Economist in two separate 

articles. Together, the articles use Bowen’s 

book to answer why societies that mistreat 

women are worse off than those who treat 

women fairly, and why foreign policy should 

pay more heed to half of humanity. 

ISSUE 

31 

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 

25 

The following paragraphs are exerpts 

combined from both Economist articles. 

“A WOMAN WHO drives a car will be 

killed,” says Sheikh Hazim Muhammad 

al-Manshad. He says it matter-of-factly, 

without raising his voice. The sheikh is a 

decorous host. Yet the code he espouses is 

brutal. The social order is built around male 

kinship groups; the leaders are all men. At 

home, women are expected to obey husbands, 

fathers or brothers. Daughters were valued for 

their ability to give birth to sons. Strict rules 

were devised to ensure women’s chastity. If 

a daughter dallies with anyone other than the 

man chosen for her, her male kin are honourbound 

to kill them both. 

Global history records an astonishing variety 

of forms of social organization. Yet almost 

universally, males subordinate females. 

How does the relationship between men and 

women shape the wider political order? The 

First Political Order is a groundbreaking 

demonstration that the persistent and 

systematic subordination of women underlies 

all other institutions, with wide-ranging 

implications for global security and 

development. 

A society’s choice to subjugate women 

has significant negative consequences: 

worse governance, worse conflict, worse 

stability, worse economic performance, 

worse food security, worse health, 

worse demographic problems, worse 

environmental protection, and worse 

social progress. Yet despite the pervasive 

power of social and political structures 

that subordinate women, history― 

and the data―reveal possibilities for 

progress. The First Political Order shows 

that when steps are taken to reduce the 

hold of inequitable laws, customs, and 

practices, outcomes for all improve. 

https://www.economist.com/ 

international/2021/09/11/societiesthat-treat-women-badly-are-poorerand-less-stable; 

https://www. 

economist.com/leaders/2021/09/11/ 

why-nations-that-fail-women-fail. 


25

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 

26 

26 

America the Vincible: U.S. 

Foreign Policy for the 

Twenty-First Century 

Earl H. Fry, Stan A. Taylor, 

Robert S. Wood 

Taking the view that the United States is 

not an invincible superpower, the book 

America the Vincible: U.S. Foreign Policy 

for the Twenty-First Century focuses 

on changing conditions within the nation 

and fully examines the constitutional, 

political, economic, strategic, and social 

issues which will shape future U.S. foreign 

policy decisions. 

The authors, BYU Professors Earl H. Fry 

and Stan A. Taylor, are joined by Professor 

Robert S. Wood, who makes suggestions 

for changes that will produce more effective 

foreign policy in the coming century. 

Professor Wood is the holder of the Chester 

W. Nimitz Chair of National Security 

at the United States Naval War College in 

Newport, Rhode Island. He served in Newport 

as Dean of the Chief of Naval Operations 

Strategic Studies Group. Wood was 

also Dean (later, Dean Emeritus) of the 

Center for Naval Warfare Studies, a focal 

point of strategic and campaign thought 

in the naval services and a major research 

group in the national security field. 

Vicious Habits: Sexually 

Transmitted Infections among 

Black and White 

Union Army Veterans 

Sven Wilson et al. 

Sven and his collaborators (Christopher 

Roudiez, Heather Desomer, Coralee Lewis 

and Noelle Yetter) analyzed a random 

sample of 15,049 white veterans and 5,329 

black veterans of the US Civil War examined 

by physicians between 1890 and 

1906. They calculated a period prevalence 

of STI of 1.2–1.7% among whites and 4.2– 

8.0% among blacks, even though blacks 

and whites had almost identical prevalence 

of STIs in their wartime medical records. 

Furthermore, they found evidence that 

Board physicians were on the lookout for 

STIs among black veterans that could be 

used to justify denial of pension support. 

With or without STIs, blacks were rejected 

at roughly twice the rate of whites during 

this time period. Currently, racial disparities 

are even higher today than in this historical 

period, with blacks currently having 

a 5–15 times higher incidence than whites. 

The authors invite a critical reflection upon 

practices of screening and measurement 

systems to assess properly the degree to 

which racial prejudice may be part of these 

systems.Their article will be featured in a 

forthcoming publication of the Journal of 

Applied History.

ISSUE 

31 

27 


27

FACULTY IN THE NEWS 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21ST, 2021 

ON TOP OF MIND 

Vice President Kamala Harris is now responsible for voting rights and illegal immigration. 

Each responsibility is a big-ticket, divisive issue that could spell either victory or doom for 

her likeliness of becoming president in the future. Questions surrounding these duties and the 

pros and cons of the VP heading such important assignments are discussed on Top of Mind by 

historian Grant Madsen and political scientist Chris Karpowitz here: https://www.byuradio. 

org/95c1cfe9 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19TH, 2021 


President Biden’s execution of removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan is what some regard 

as a catastrophe, citing the supplies and people he left behind. Others have the opposite view: 

that it was worth it, because our soldiers are now home rather than fighting a losing battle. 

The political consequences President Biden will face as a result of his decision, and how 

he will weather the storm, are discussed further with BYU professors Chris Karpowitz and 

Grant Madsen in this episode: https://www.byuradio.org/0d63bf6d 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2021 


After Texas passed controversial law SB 8– effectively banning abortion after 6 weeks, when 

a fetal heartbeat is detectable– the issue of abortion is once again the hot topic for politicians 

across the nation. Even when compared to other issues met with similarly fiery debate, such 

as gun control or the death penalty, abortion seems to almost be in a category of its own. 

We’ve had half a century to live with Roe v. Wade, yet it hasn’t gotten any less sensational 

since its origin almost exactly 50 years ago. 

The core issue is that abortion is centered around two fundamental and very different ideas of 

how American freedom and responsibility are defined. Why is abortion such a major issue, 

and why does it matter? Regular Top of Mind guests Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen 

dissect the situation in this episode: https://www.byuradio.org/0fcc4eba 

28 

28

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH, 2021 


The 2020 election saw a record voter turnout, in which 66.8% of the eligible voting 

population turned up at the polls. Yet, the state or city elections that occur between 

major elections see turnout as little as 10%. 

Off-year city elections provide an opening for well-organized groups to influence local 

policy, sometimes even against the interest of the general electorate. BYU political 

science professor Adam Dynes explains the reasoning, advantages, and disadvantages 

of off-year elections. Listen to the episode here: https://www.byuradio.org/bc769d78 

ISSUE 

31 

FACULTY IN THE NEWS 

29 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14TH, 2021 


What do children, privacy, and a whistleblower have in common? They’re all factors in 

Congress’s latest clash with private business: the fight against Facebook. Facebook is 

under fire after a whistleblower testified that its executives are not only aware of the harm 

Facebook is causing– whether through voter manipulation, unauthorized data collection, or 

its negative effects on teenagers’ mental health– but are also attempting to conceal it. 

Listen to regulars Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen describe Congress’s grievances with 

the social media giant, as well as what this involvement could mean for the future of media 

monopolies, here: https://www.byuradio.org/9bfa0106 


29

CLOSING THOUGHT 

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 

Four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, 

conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived 

and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have 

come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their 

lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this 

ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above 

our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say 

here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated 

here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from 

these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full 

measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain 

-- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the 

people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

30 

30 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

NOVEMBER 19, 1863

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PSP Winter 2022

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