Our Team
Edwina Chih-Yu Chen
Chair, Graduate Symposium Organizing Committee
Edwina is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on LGBTQ+ politics, authoritarian regimes, and East Asian politics. Her dissertation explores the global dynamics of same-sex marriage (SSM) legalization and the political representation of sexual minorities. She has experience working with NGOs and has served as a student representative on various committees, including her role as former VP of the Political Science Graduate Organization.
She hopes all participants find this event to be an inclusive and supportive space where graduate students can gain valuable experience and grow professionally!
Carolina Bermejo Goodwin
Program Coordinator
Carolina is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of South Carolina. She studies a diverse range of topics within Comparative Politics and American Politics. Her primary interests include developing a feminist identity and its interaction with other group identities, particularly racial identity. Carolina is especially focused on how racialized groups, with an emphasis on Latinos, engage with the Supreme Court of the United States. She obtained a B.A. in Political Science and Law from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Conor Craig
Logistics Coordinator
Conor is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of South Carolina. He received a dual B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma. Conor explores American political psychology by considering the effects of institutional designs on individual and group level communications and perceptions in the American democracy. This relates to additional interests such as threat, victim, and economic perceptions, as well as belief in conspiracy theories, adoption of extremism and anti-democratic pressures. Considering these topics in relation to institutional design allows him to explore the complex relationship between social structures and political behavior.
Ryan P. Dennehy
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Ryan is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of South Carolina, specializing in American politics and public policy. He explores a diverse range of topics within these fields, with a particular focus on the development of U.S. welfare policy and the political motivations behind state-driven poverty alleviation measures. Ryan’s research primarily examines political communication and rhetorical frames, positing that the ways in which politics are discussed do not merely reflect institutions, policymaking, or other underlying processes, but that rhetoric itself shapes political reality. Additionally, he investigates policy and rhetorical diffusion among American states, analyzing how ideas and discourse spread and influence policymaking across different regions.
Dr. Matthew Wilson
Faculty Representative, Graduate Symposium Organizing Committee
Professor Wilson received his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in 2015 and joined the USC faculty in 2019. The courses that he has taught at USC include Latin American Governments and a graduate course on Dictatorship and Democratization. Professor Wilson is interested in explaining the impacts of political institutions and temporal dynamics in non-democratic settings. Some of his ongoing research projects focus on the mechanisms that support legislative strengthening and party institutionalization in autocracies and their relation to conflict and regime change. Journals in which he has published include the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, International Interactions, Political Science Research and Methods, and Comparative Political Studies. He is currently a Research Fellow with the Varieties of Democracy Project at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, where he has contributed to research on democratization.
