Jessica Teets and Orion Lewis awarded grant from Social Science Research and Humanities Council of Canada

Jessica Teets and Orion Lewis (both Political Science) are part of a research team based at the University of Alberta that has received funding from the Social Science Research and Humanities Council of Canada for a project titled Policy Innovation and Institutional Change in China. This study uses an evolutionary approach to analyze how the interaction of policy ideas, individual preferences, and existing institutions in China create incentives for local officials to act as policy entrepreneurs in an authoritarian system. The grant provides travel funds for research in China and other project costs. At least two Middlebury undergraduate students will assist with this research.