Finnley DiBenedetto, a junior political science major, recently had the opportunity to work as a research assistant for Robert Denemark, professor of political science. Undergraduate research assistants play crucial roles in ensuring the progress of research projects. Denemark was thrilled with Finnley’s performance as one of the RAs on his team, where they logged, categorized and filed patterns of multilateral treaty making.

Finnley is passionate about studying trends of peace and collaboration. Denemark noted Finnley’s passion for the subject as well as their exceptional work ethic while they were a student in one of his courses. This prompted him to ask them to consider joining his research team.

As a research assistant, Finnley developed skills to distill information into comparable categories and use those comparisons to observe patterns. They categorized treaties on several criteria, then transferred those to spreadsheets to make comparisons and pattern identification possible. These patterns can be used for research on a variety of potential hypotheses and purposes, such as trends in international power dynamics. Finnley expressed that they “were excited to contribute to a project that has the potential for a wide range of applications in research.” Beyond those applications, the work Finnley contributed to has the potential to challenge and change interpretations of existing political science theories. Regarding one such theory, Finnley found it fascinating how the team’s work on treaty patterns could “contextualize the original theory to understand why it said what it said.”

Finnley thoroughly enjoyed their time working with Denemark and the team. The work could feel repetitive at times, but ultimately, they found it highly rewarding. While they do not know what their career path may be, the skills they gained are transferable to careers in or outside of academia. Finnley remarked that if they decide to pursue academia further, they would like to use the project data as a jumping-off point. One idea they find most exciting is to investigate “when actors do not sign treaties and why, such as related to patterns of violence.”