Yale ISPS Fellowship Helps Undergraduates Transform Big Questions Into Policy-Relevant Research

Rick Harrison
Dahl Scholars sit at a picnic table in the ISPS courtyard at 77 Prospect

(Clockwise from left) Dahl scholars Ethan Chiu, Alessandra Pappalardi, Jennifer Rosas, Sabbi Gale-Donnelly, and Tina Zeng worked with ISPS-affiliated faculty on policy-oriented research while receiving sustained academic mentorship.

As a child, Ethan Chiu often visited Hsinchu, Taiwan, where his mother grew up. It also happened to be home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the world’s most valuable companies.

He met migrant workers there, seeding a curiosity that followed him to Yale. This past year, Chiu returned to Hsinchu as a Dahl scholar with the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and gathered oral histories from workers to tell a story about exploitation in a tightly controlled labor system.

As he learned, the labor dynamics embedded in Cold War semiconductor offshoring abroad now appear more visible in American politics. The 2022 CHIPS Act sought to encourage more domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, and policymakers continue to wrestle with the same tension between national interest and worker protections.

“So many governments and companies around the world are investing billions of dollars in hardware and building out computer infrastructure to power the AI revolution,” Chiu said. “It’s important to understand the historical context and how this exploitive infrastructure continues today.”

Launched by ISPS in 2015, the Dahl Research Scholars program honors Robert Dahl, the late Yale professor regarded by many as the leading American political scientist of the 20th century. The program supports Yale College students who want to use research to make a positive contribution to American public policy.

Over the course of a year-long fellowship, Dahl scholars work with ISPS-affiliated faculty on policy-oriented research while receiving sustained academic mentorship. In addition, students develop independent public policy projects proposed in their applications, refining their work in collaboration with faculty mentors and with support from their peer cohort.

“Being a Dahl scholar was incredibly helpful,” Chiu said. “I was able to travel to Taiwan, conduct field work, gathering stories from workers, and build this project from the ground up. I’m very grateful. I don’t think this project would have been possible without this support.”

It’s been a great community. Sometimes it’s good to hear different perspectives.

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Ethan Chiu

Chiu, who graduated in May with a B.A. and an M.P.P. in global affairs and a B.A. in history, was mentored in his project by Arne Westad, Elihu Professor of History, and Julian Posada, assistant professor of American studies. He said he also learned from his fellow Dahl scholars.

“It’s been a great community,” he said. “Sometimes it’s good to hear different perspectives.”

Alessandra Pappalardi worked with Sabbi Gale-Donnelly to conduct a study on whether structured dialogue could help people engage across political divides.

“Rhetoric today has become so polemical, and people are too often unable to engage with each other,” Pappalardi said. “Dialogue, which had once been a foundation of American communities, seems to be exceedingly rare.”

Pappalardi and Gale-Donnelly recruited Yale students to participate in structured conversations about politically salient topics, aiming to foster genuine discussion.

The pair navigated the university’s review process for studies involving human subjects with the help of ISPS Faculty Fellow Isabela Mares, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science, and worked with ISPS Faculty Fellow Josh Kalla to make sure their research and data analysis plans were sound. Shao Ming Lee, a Ph.D. candidate in political science, helped them shape the study.

Pappalardi and Gale-Donnelly stressed how they took care to avoid modeling the project on popular combative online debate formats.

“The people who chose to join our study are really lovely and were excited about having conversations across the political spectrum, talking about things that might be fraught, but engaging in the discussions nonetheless,” Pappalardi said. “That’s been really nice to see, and it has brought me some hope, at least, about our generation.”

Pappalardi, a rising senior, an ISPS director’s fellow, and a Millstone fellow, praised Justin Greenman, a political science Ph.D. candidate who coordinates the program.

“They are very sophisticated undergraduate students,” Greenman said. “They know how to conduct research and organize a project. My job is more coordinating or collaborating rather than instructing.”

He described the program as student-directed and flexible, with students keeping advisors in the loop and submitting project deliverables without unnecessary meetings or deadlines.

“I think the flexibility allows for different kinds of projects,” Greenman said. “It works for the senior thesis, and it works for a student who just has an idea and wants to see what’s there.”

Jonathan Bernard, a rising junior, explored how Ronald Reagan’s presidency worked behind the scenes, focusing on the influence of his advisors. Tina Zeng, a rising junior, used AI tools to study how New York City’s community boards operate, finding wide variations in their transparency, priorities, and representation.

“The breadth of curiosity and diligent scholarship among our Dahl students demonstrates the best of what Yale can inspire and deliver,” said Gregory Huber, acting director of ISPS and Forst Family Professor of Political Science. “This most recent cohort stands as a testament to the value of structured advising and financial support for helping undergraduates achieve research success.”

Jennifer Rosas, a rising senior planning to attend medical school, worked with Dr. Xi Chen, an ISPS-affiliated faculty member and associate professor in the Yale School of Public Health, to examine geographic and socioeconomic disparities in the global distribution of clinical trials for major chronic diseases.

She said the Dahl program introduced her to political science and global health science and helped her solidify what kind of research she wants to pursue after graduation.

“I met some people who do incredible research that I wouldn’t have even known existed if it wasn’t for the Dahl Scholar Program,” Rosas said. “It intertwines a lot of different disciplines that I think I wouldn’t have been exposed to had I gone through my whole college experience just in STEM.”

She appreciated the program’s mentorship and opportunity to learn from her peers.

“What the students are doing is honestly jaw-dropping,” Rosas said. “It was really nice to see how the Dahl Scholar Program supported all these different types of projects and guided us through the process of research in general.”