Two weeks ago, SMU student Shaun Williams-Wyche presented a research paper at the annual American Political Science Association convention in Washington, D.C.
The convention, held Sept. 1 – 4, drew an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 political scientists from around the world, according to Professor Harold Stanley of SMU’s political science department. Stanley also presented at the convention.
Williams-Wyche is among 12 studentsà from the 2005 Ralph Bunche Summer Institute at Duke University who were selected to present their research at the APSA convention.
The Institute is a program designed to encourage promising African American and Latino undergraduates to attend graduate school for political science. Students who enroll in the institute take graduate-level courses in political science and write papers.
The selected students displayed their work at a poster session, where each designed a visual and a handout to present their ideas to convention-goers.
“I’m interested in political behavior and methodology,” Williams-Wyche said. His paper, titled “A New Bloc of Latino Voters?: The Prospects for Latino Non-Partisanship,” described “factors that would cause Latinos to be more individual” and not lean towards one political party or another.
Williams-Wyche acknowledges Stanley as the main influence who encouraged his participation in the summer program.
This was the SMU senior’s second trip to D.C. While at the convention, he took time to attend a panel on partisan identification among voters in Europe.
