PROJECT CO-DIRECTORS

David Louis Cingranelli (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1977).
Dr. Cingranelli is Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University, SUNY and is Co-Director of CIRI. His research is focused on the comparative human rights practices of governments. He is conducting research on the human rights effects of structural adjustment policies, the measurement of human rights practices, the effect of the end of the cold war on government respect for human rights, economic globalization and respect for worker rights, the relationships among different types of human rights, the dissent/repression linkage, and human rights and foreign aid. He has published numerous articles and book chapters mostly focusing upon the comparative, scientific study of government human rights practices. He has authored three books: Human Rights and Developing Countries, edited for J.A.I. Press, Ethics, American Foreign Policy, and the Third World, 1993, St. Martin's Press; and Human Rights: Theory and Measurement. 1988, edited, Macmillan Press. In 2002-3, he served as the President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association.
Click Here to Visit Dr. Cingranelli’s Website.

David L. Richards (Ph.D. Binghamton University, 1999).
Dr. Richards is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Memphis, and is Co-Director of CIRI. He has published research studying government respect for human rights, broadly defined, in a number of journals and books. This research utilizes a variety of lenses through which to examine respect for human rights, including economic globalization, democratic institutions such as national elections and political parties, banking crises, the end of the Cold War, and information globalization. His most recent work examines the distribution and formation of citizen attitudes towards human rights, both worldwide and within the USA. His work has been funded multiple times by The National Science Foundation and The World Bank, among others. Recently, Professor Richards was added to the advisory board for UNIFEM’s Progress of the World’s Women: 2008 report.
Click Here to Visit Dr. Richards’ Personal Website.
Click Here to Visit Dr. Richards’ Website at the University of Memphis.

CURRENT RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

K. Chad Clay (Ph.D. Student, Binghamton University).
Mr. Clay has been a research assistant for the CIRI Human Rights Data Project since 2006 and is a George L. Hinman Doctoral Fellow and first-year political science doctoral student at Binghamton University. In his work for CIRI, he has been responsible for coding, assisting with obtaining CIRI intercoder reliability statistics, codebook editing, supervision of graduate and undergraduate coders, and several other tasks. Mr. Clay’s research interests include human rights, economic development, international relations, and comparative politics. He received a B.A. from Hendrix College in 2003 followed by an M.A. in political science in 2007 and an M.A. in sociology in 2008, both from the University of Memphis. His master's thesis in political science focused on the effects of economic assistance provided by USAID on government respect for physical integrity rights. Mr. Clay has received several grants and awards, including competitive travel funding from the University of Memphis, the International Studies Association, and the Southern Political Science Association.

Paola Fajardo (A.B.D. in Political Science, 2008, Binghamton University).
Ms. Paola Fajardo is a Research Assistant for the CIRI Human Rights Data Project. She helps develop coding guidelines for new human rights variables, supervises undergraduate coders, and manages data for intercoder reliability tests. She also performs a variety of other tasks associated with updating the data on an annual basis and expanding the variety of human rights included in the project. Ms Fajardo is interested in studying human rights practices in the developing world, particularly Latin America. She is also interested in US foreign policy and international relations. Her dissertation will explore the effects of transnational forces upon states’ human rights practices. She has finished her PhD course in the Political Science PhD program at Binghamton University and will soon begin her dissertation research.

Jillienne Haglund (M.A. Student, University of Memphis).
Ms. Jill Haglund is a research assistant for the CIRI Human Rights Data Project. She is responsible for coding, supervising and training undergraduate coders, and helping develop guidelines for new human rights variables, among other tasks. In the summer of 2008, she helped develop a variable for the CIRI Project to measure human rights practices in countries regarding violence against women. She received a B.A. from Montana State University in political science in 2007 and is currently working on her M.A. in political science at the University of Memphis. Her research interests include human rights, humanitarian intervention, international relations, and comparative politics. She is currently working on her master’s thesis which addresses the problems with consensus governing humanitarian intervention in the international community. She anticipates graduating in the Spring of 2009.

Amanda Kuppers (M.A. Student, University of Memphis).
Ms. Kuppers has been a research assistant for the CIRI Human Rights Data Project since June 2008. In her work for CIRI, she has been responsible for coding, training and supervising CIRI coders, and assisting with obtaining CIRI intercoder reliability statistics. Additionally, she worked during the summer of 2008 on the development of a new measure that evaluates country practices regarding violence against women. Ms. Kuppers received her B.S. in political science from Western Carolina University and is currently working on her M.A. at the University of Memphis. Her research interests include human rights, social movement theory, subjectivity and rights consciousness, and post-World War Two existentialist political philosophy. Ms. Kuppers is currently working on her master’s thesis which focuses on universality and reexamining the basic rights approach.

TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT

John Wettlaufer
Mr. Wettlaufer serves as web and technical developer for the CIRI web site and data project.
Click Here to Visit Mr. Wettlaufer's Website.

PAST MAJOR PROJECT CONTRIBUTORS

Mohammed Rodwan Abouharb (Ph.D. Binghamton University, 2005).
Dr. Abouharb served as a Research Assistant for the CIRI data collection and cleaning effort during the academic year 2003-4 and summer of 2004. He was responsible for coding, assisting with the CIRI intercoder reliability study, code book editing, data entry, and first line supervision of undergraduate coders. Mr. Abouharb’s research is focused on the causes and management of violence and economic development within states. His Masters degree thesis examined the impact of structural adjustment on development. His doctoral dissertation examines the impact of economic liberalization on civil wars between 1816-2002. The key hypothesis is that economic liberalization policies required by structural adjustment agreements with international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank increase the probability of civil war. Mr. Abouharb published an article in 2002 on the impact of interventions and civil conflict with Professor Patrick M. Regan in World Affairs and has written two book chapters with Professor David Cingranelli on the determinants of structural adjustment lending, one published in Sabine C. Carey and Steven C. Poe (eds.) Understanding Human Rights Violations: New Systematic Studies 2004 and another in an edited book by Gustav Rani and James Raymond Vreeland. A number of conference papers given at national and international conferences indicate the progress and refinement of his research agenda examining the impact of structural adjustment. A number of manuscripts on related subjects are now forthcoming and under review by scholarly journals.

Shawna Sweeney (Ph.D. Binghamton University, 2006).
Ms. Sweeney served as a Research Assistant for the CIRI data collection and cleaning effort during the academic year 2003-4 and summer of 2004. She is completing a dissertation explaining cross-national variations in government protections of women’s economic, social and political rights. That work is supported by a Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation. She was mainly responsible for developing the coding guidelines of, and coding, the women’s rights variables included in the CIRI human rights dataset. She also was responsible for data coding, code book editing, data entry, and provided first line supervision of undergraduate coders. Her main areas of interest are Comparative Politics, Women’s Studies, Economic Globalization, and International Political Economy. Ms. Sweeney also has significant applied policy and research experience. From 1998 to 2004, she served as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts Center for Policy Analysis where she co-authored and single-authored over 30 policy monographs on a wide range of policy relevant issues. She is also the co-author of an internationally distributed book entitled, Portuguese Americans and Contemporary Civic Culture in Massachusetts (with Clyde Barrow and David Borges).

Craig Webster (Ph.D. Binghamton University, 1995).
In his capacity as human rights statistics consultant for the World Bank in Washington, DC, Dr. Webster began the work of cleaning the most recent years of the CIRI human rights dataset in the spring of 2002. His research interests are human rights, international relations, and comparative foreign policy. He is an experienced social science researcher who has worked in academia, consulting, and market research. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the College of Tourism and Hotel Management in Nicosia, Cyprus where he develops research studies of issues of political importance in Cyprus and presents his findings to academics, opinion leaders, and the media. He has served as Human Rights Statistical Consultant for the World Bank since 2002.

GRADUATE & UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT CODERS

Over the past decade, hundreds of students in David Cingranelli’s courses at Binghamton University and David Richards’ courses at The University of Memphis, The College of New Jersey, and Missouri Southern State University have assisted in coding as one of their course requirements. Their help over the years has been of critical importance to the development of the CIRI Human Rights Dataset.