UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1334

Submission information
Submission Number: 1334
Submission ID: 21266
Submission UUID: 504a1976-5f65-488f-8441-ba82c31b05ed

Created: Fri, 08/22/2025 - 06:44 PM
Completed: Fri, 08/22/2025 - 06:47 PM
Changed: Wed, 09/03/2025 - 04:37 AM

Remote IP address: 144.174.212.78
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Primary Research Mentor Name Hashim Malallah
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns
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Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) hm22o@fsu.edu
Position Title Graduate Student
Faculty Advisor Name Yusaku Horiuchi
Faculty Advisor's FSU Email yusaku.horiuchi@fsu.edu
FSU College (if applicable) Social Sciences and Public Policy
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation Political Science
Headshot (optional) my pic.jpg
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above)
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable)
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns
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Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Title of the Project Law in Speech, Law in Practice? Regime Type and Leaders’ References to UN Resolutions
Project Keywords text analysis, UNGA, speeches, regime type, leaders, global audience
Are you currently looking for research assistants? Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed 3
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) political science and computer science preferred but not required.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s): Fully Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work? 6
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work? Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description Why do some world leaders reference international law more frequently than others when addressing global audiences? What explain variation in references to existing international resolutions in public speeches? I propose and test competing theoretical expectations based on leaders’ regime type, using data from the United Nations General Assembly debate texts. Democratic and autocratic leaders may reference past resolutions to signal compliance with legal precedence and respect for international law, or they might strategically avoid referencing resolutions they did not support. However, democratic leaders might avoid referencing a resolution that could incur negative domestic audience costs. On the contrary, autocratic leaders could use international resolutions as a diversionary strategy to distract global attention from domestic abuses of international law.
Drawing on UNGA floor speeches from 1946 to 2023, I explore how regime type shapes democratic and autocratic leaders’ incentives to reference past UNSC or UNGA resolutions. Preliminary evidence show that autocratic leaders are more likely than democratic leaders to reference resolutions in their speeches. However, it is unclear for which topics and issue areas referencing is more or less likely to occur. In this project, I aim to develop a handbook for classifying UNGA floor speeches by different topics. Unlike UNSC speeches, which are structured by specific agenda, UNGA speeches allow leaders to strategically select the topics and resolutions they like to discuss. To identify when and where leaders are more or less likely to reference past resolutions, it is important to classify speeches by topics through supervised classification scheme.
Research Tasks Hand coding and classifying paragraphs from UNGA speeches by different topics (A handbook with detailed guidelines and information on how to code each paragraph will be provided). Topics include: Palestine conflict, nuclear weapons and nuclear material, arms control and disarmament, colonialism, human rights, (economic) development.
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: No specific skills are required other than attention to detail and careful reading.
Mentoring Philosophy Actively engaging students and involving them with the research design, listening to students thoughts and evaluations of the project, Creating an interactive environment for learning, Identifying what motivates each mentee.
Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nana.13057
Please add any additional information here (if applicable):
Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable? No
Roundtable times and Zoom links
Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation Yes
Materials Grant Yes
UROP Poster Presentation Yes
Faculty Advisor Confirmation Yes
Are you interested in attending in a UROP Research Mentor Workshop Series? No
Year 2025
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