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“Doing research for Dr. Englehart has given me confidence. It is rewarding and exciting to know that my professor trusts my judgment on texts and citations and that my analysis influences his work,” says Susan Antonioni, a junior from Hellertown, Pa., and a graduate of Saucon Valley Senior High School. “EXCEL offers invaluable experience with analytical reading and enhances research skills for locating material, evaluating texts, and summarizing material through writing and graphing.”
Susan Antonioni is exploring the relationship between political culture and human rights policies in five Asian nations with Neil A. Englehart, assistant professor of government and law.
Antonioni is participating in Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, in which students work closely with faculty members on research projects while earning a stipend.
“I’m interested in the proper role of culture in explaining political events,” says Englehart. The disappearance of a credible communist threat has forced ‘soft authoritarian’ regimes to seek a new language to justify their treatment of their citizens, and political leaders have turned to the concept of political culture to fill this role, he explains.
“They claim that not all cultures lend themselves to the liberal democratic institutions devised in the West,” he says. “Most prominent among these is the argument made by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s ‘Senior Minister,’ that there is a pan-Asian culture based on Confucianism which is more suited to a ‘democracy’ emphasizing social order, paternalistic government, and prosperity, rather than individual or civil rights.”
Englehart is working on a book-length project dealing with this “Asian values” argument.
“Dr. Englehart is writing a text that gives a comparative analysis of political culture and how it relates to human rights issues in India, Japan, China, South Korea, and Singapore,” says Antonioni, a double major in government and law and economics and business.
“I examine articles for customs, social traditions, and local government structures that give us insight to the values of the citizens,” she continues. “Then these values are related back to the human rights policies. If human rights violations are present in a nation, and in fact all five have been recognized with problems in varying degrees, then cultural research helps us determine why there are violations and what values the people want their governments to observe,” she explains.
“Susan is responsible and enthusiastic,” Englehart says. “She was the best student in a class of mine, and I sought her out due to her comparative politics background.”
“Doing research for Dr. Englehart has given me confidence,” Antonioni says. “It is rewarding and exciting to know that my professor trusts my judgment on texts and citations and that my analysis influences his work.” She says the experience will benefit her in her future endeavors.
“For students like me, who are interested in pursuing law school or graduate school in government or law, EXCEL research prepares you for the challenges of analytical reading and writing,” Antonioni continues. “EXCEL offers invaluable experience with analytical reading and enhances research skills for locating material, evaluating texts, and summarizing material through writing and graphing.”
Another Side of Susan
A campus tour guide for the Admissions Office, she has served as student representative on three faculty and administration search committees and has spoken on behalf of the Career Service and Admissions on student panels. She’s a member of the Concert Choir and Delta Delta Delta sorority and treasurer of the Straight Edge Club.