Aaron, thanks for talking about your tenure here at Roper, and great to see you back! We were interested in hearing about your experiences with being a Roper Fellow on two levels. If you don't mind, let's start with your journey--how did you become involved in your current studies? What was your path from Rollins to Georgia State to upstate NY? Is it still accurate to describe your focus as “research interests include executive politics, democratic institutions, and the domestic politics of foreign policy?”
Believe it or not, I majored in music and minored in creative writing as an undergraduate at Rollins College. As you can probably tell from those choices, I’ve always loved creative endeavors of all kinds. Long story short, I eventually started getting into photography and that led to me doing some photography for local politicians and political events. Getting involved in politics was eye-opening in many ways, and even through some of the more difficult and frustrating circumstances, I could see the potential it could provide to make a positive impact. For me, I decided the way I could hopefully make this impact was by going back to school and getting a master’s in public policy, which I did at Georgia State University. During my time there, I loved the work so much, that I started thinking about pursuing a PhD. I began working on applications, and now, here I am, so grateful for the opportunity to study at Cornell! I’m currently engaged in research on the US presidency, the strength of democracy, and the domestic politics of foreign policy.
What were the research and projects you’ve done at the Roper Center, and how has that been applicable in your pursuit of a degree? What do you have lined up for this year?
My first experience working with the Roper Center was as a Kohut Fellow for the summer of 2022. That summer, I worked on analyzing a series of Gallup polls from the 1960s and 70s that asked about public opinion on the Vietnam War. This was an important part of a larger project my advisor, Douglas Kriner, and I are working on that examines public opinion toward the use of military force and how opinions in this area differ by race and gender. We are still working on various aspects of this project, and my time as a Kohut fellow taught me valuable skills that I continue to use in this research.
There are a few different projects I hope to work on with the Roper Center this upcoming year. First, my dissertation looks at how presidents govern during economic crises, and I’d like to look at public opinion polls that ask about economic crises or presidential leadership on the economy more generally – there are some interesting datasets on these topics that go all the way back to the 1930s! Recently, I’ve been doing a bit of research at the intersection of sports and politics for a magazine article I’m working on, and I’m interested in examining this topic further by looking into polls that ask the public about their views on the political and economic issues connected to sports. Finally, the Roper Center does an excellent job of giving researchers the tools they need to examine long time series through their trends feature and other resources, and I’m excited to contribute to those efforts – I always get excited when I find an interesting polling question that has been asked regularly for a long time.
What has the experience of being affiliated with the Roper Center been like for you?
My first experience with the Roper Center database was when one of my professors at Georgia State showed us Roper’s iPoll archive for a research project we were doing in his class. At that moment, I could have never imagined that I would be a fellow at the Roper Center just a few years later!
I have really enjoyed my time working with the Roper Center. I have learned new skills, furthered my existing research projects, and been exposed to new career possibilities. Everyone I’ve met at Roper has also just been so nice and great to work with!
As part of the Fellowship, we have set up sessions to meet the professionals from the Roper Board of Directors. Any takeaways, or memorable discussions?
These sessions have been very informative and enjoyable. One of the big takeaways for me has been that there are many different career pathways available to PhD students interested in public opinion research. We talked to people working in academia, polling firms, and advocacy organizations, and all of them were doing very important and interesting work. I’ve also learned a lot from asking these professionals what they think about some of the current challenges facing the polling industry and where the industry might be heading in the coming years.
What tools, applications and technical resources have been important for you both at Roper and in pursuit of your doctorate?
During my Kohut Fellowship, I learned how to convert datasets that are in the ASCII format, which is a format that is very difficult to use in most data analysis programs, to easy-to-analyze modern file formats. Many of the polls that are in the ASCII format are older polls, so learning this skill has given me access to a lot of historical polling data I wouldn’t otherwise be able to use in my research.
Any thoughts for other students?
I would certainly encourage any students interested in public opinion research to look into the fellowships and other opportunities the Roper Center provides. And of course, don’t forget to look through the iPoll database for datasets and polling questions for your research projects! My work with Roper has been such an integral and helpful part of my time as a PhD student, and I’m looking forward to continuing my work with Roper this year.
Aaron Childree will lead a Roper Roundtable on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, discussing the results of the 2022 Collaborative Midterm Survey. The 2022 CMS was led by Principal Investigators Peter Enns, Colleen Barry, and Roper Center Executive Director Jonathon Schuldt from Cornell University. Register for the free Roper Roundtable here.