Cory Madison '20 published in Asian Journal of Comparative Politics

2018 Mar 29

Sophomore Cory Madison was recently published in the Asian Journal of Comparative Politics following his research as a Kolbe fellow this past summer. His paper titled "Public Opinion to Government Action: The Remilitarization of Japan" explores to what extent public opinion affected legislation and military action in post-war Japan.

Cory's interest in the topic was first piqued in a Comparative Politics class he took with Prof. Fritz Gaenslen. The class challenged students to view the world from a global perspective, something Cory has found to be an intrinsic part of his Gettysburg education. It was also Gaenslen who encouraged Cory to pursue the subject of democracy in Japan, which Cory then proposed as his topic for the Kolbe Fellowship.

The Kolbe Fellowship is a ten-week faculty mentored student research program made possible by a generous endowment from Eric Kolbe '65. As a Kolbe fellow, Cory spent his summer delving into public opinion polls from post-war Japan, determined to finish his research and add it to his website before the beginning of the school year. Madison even had the opportunity to be registered as an official researcher at the Library of Congress, where he conducted research at the library's Asian reading room and spoke with experts on the topic.

Cory cites the paper being published as a culmination of all his efforts: "The longest students normally work on something is just a week or a little more, so it was a great experience to work on something for a whole year and see it develop into something of value."