Allen receives a grant from CHS Foundation

Barbara Allen, Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences, received a $15,000 grant from the CHS Foundation for her documentary film, “Actual World, Possible Future-A Documentary about the Lives and Work of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom.” The CHS grant will support Barbara’s March 2015 research trip to South Korea, on which she will interview and film important figures in the Korean cooperative movement and conduct research at coops and other social enterprises, including fisheries and fish markets, eco-tourism, and water resources. This opportunity is especially important to the documentary and to the cause of the coop movement because the movement in South Korea has both wrought enormous positive social change and provided a successful contrast to the North Korean model of state control.

Allen teaches courses in American politics, feminist political theory, politics and the media, and constitutional law. Her broad interests include research related to liberal philosophy, democratic theory, institutional analysis and design, rational choice, and policy and law related to gender and race. Her areas of specialization related to empirical theory and methodology include quantitative methods, political socialization and behavior, public opinion, and theories of learning. Professor Allen writes extensively on applying Tocqueville’s theories to contemporary politics and policy. Other publications include her research on Martin Luther King’s contributions to American political thought. She is a contributing editor to The Martin Luther King Papers Project at Stanford University and a fellow at the Mondale Policy Forum at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Allen also is a recipient of several grants including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Earhart Foundation fellowships.