News
Hannah Patrick Presents Honors Thesis Research at MPSA
April 17, 2018
During the Winter 2018 semester, Hannah Patrick completed an independent study with Prof. Kilburn to write her Honors thesis, “The Impact of Economic and Public Health Distress on 2016 Michigan County Level Presidential Voting.” Hannah examined the unusual degree to which counties under greater distress, in particular higher levels of drug and alcohol induced deaths, tended to support a Republican presidential candidate over a Democratic candidate, compared to previous elections since 2000. On April 6, Hannah presented her research as a poster at the Chicago 76th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, the largest political science conference in the United States. Hannah will graduate in May with a double major in Political Science and Economics.
In Hannah's words, "For those interested in presenting research at conferences such as this one, do not take the comments other people give you personally to heart. In academic settings, you should always want to make your work better, and the people who give you advice are simply making the improvement process easier. Do not feel you need to use every idea, but consider each comment and treat each of the comments they give you as meaningful advice. In the end, you may not use their ideas, but considering those comments may provide you with new ideas you never would have thought of before."