The Rose Institute provides opportunities for its students to serve as research assistants for our Faculty Advisors on their individual scholarship. In recent years, students have assisted Professors Fortner, Miller, Pears, Rose, and Sinclair in conducting research on various topics, including the rivalry between Texas and California, minimum wage policy in the United States, the Rockefeller drug laws, the history of political reform in New York and California, and the development of state identities.
Most recent research conducted with assistance from Rose Institute students includes:
Michael Javen Fortner and Cameron Stevens, “Race, Crime, and the Prison Buildup,” The Oxford Handbook on Sentencing. New York: Oxford University Press, January 2026
Michael Javen Fortner and Cameron Stevens, “Crime, Punishment, and Urban Criminal Justice Systems in the United States,” Handbook of Urban Politics, ed. Ronald K. Vogel. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, July 2024.
Michael Javen Fortner and Liann Bielicki, “Race, Class, and Urban Politics in the United States,” Handbook of Urban Politics, ed. Ronald K. Vogel (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, July 2024).
Michael Javen Fortner and Noah Swanson, “‘The People vs. Crack:’ Drugs, Violence, and the Politics of Order Maintenance,” Journal of Policy History, forthcoming
Michael Javen Fortner, Austin Andersen, and Jada Cook, “Crack, The Fog of Disorder, and the Congressional War on Drugs,” under review
Michael Javen Fortner and Aria Fafat, “ ‘Crack’: Immigration, National Security, and the War on Drugs in the United States,” under review
Emily Pears and Emily Sydnor, “The Correlates and Characteristics of American State Identity,” Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 52:2 (Spring 2022) 173-200.
Most recent research conducted with assistance from Rose Institute students include:
- Sinclair, J. Andrew, Ian O’Grady, Bryn Miller, and Catherine M. Murphy. “Participation and Competition in Top-Two Elections: Trade-Offs in Election Reform.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly, October 2025, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/spq.2025.10007.
Raising the Floor: Federalism and the Politics of U.S. Minimum Wage Policy. University of Chicago Press, 2026.