Sponsored Research

Summer Scholars

The Rogers Center for the American Presidency operates under the belief that new, innovative work in the study of the presidency has the power to remake the field of presidential studies. To aid in the creation of this work, the Rogers Center offers four $5,000 grants each semester to Vanderbilt graduate students studying the presidency.

The Center is proud to announce its first cohort of recipients, whose interdisciplinary work spans history and political science. These four scholars are each exploring the institution of the presidency from unique, forward-looking angles. Read more about each of our scholars below and check back for updates as their research progresses.

Are you a current graduate student interested in applying for a Rogers Center grant? Please contact Maddie Fry for more information.

Caroline Johnson, Ph.D candidate in History

Caroline Johnston headshot

Caroline Johnston is a PhD candidate in modern American history at Vanderbilt University. Her dissertation,f“Carbon Cowboys: Myth, Land, and Political Synthesis in the Rocky Mountain Oil Boom, 1973-1989,” traces the economic and political networks forged in the regional oil boom, and examines how they molded the mountain landscape, shaped western collective memory, and steered the priorities of the New Right.

With the support of the Rogers Center Research Grant, she will analyze the oil boom’s effect on the national political landscape as it moved rightward. Using archival material from the Hoover Institution and the National Archives, this final portion of her project illuminates how the Heritage Foundation, steeped in both western oil money and ideology, constructed a new vision of federal conservatism, and how the Reagan administration adopted and advanced this vision in turn.

Patrick Buhr, Ph.D candidate in Political Science

headshot of Patrick BuhrPatrick Buhr is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, and a graduate affiliate with the Center for Effective Lawmaking and the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives covering health policy and the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Patrick graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2017 with a B.A. in Political Science and Economics.

The Rogers Center will support Patrick’s dissertation work on the relationship between Congress and the president. More specifically, his work assesses how Congress’s increasingly partisan electoral incentives affect the president’s ability to advance a legislative agenda—particularly given that the president frequently requires bipartisan support to enact his priorities. Patrick’s
research agenda follows a mixed-methods approach, employing statistical methods as well as elite interviews and game theoretic models.

Nate Trimble, Ph.D candidate in History

Nate Trimble headshotNate is a Ph.D Candidate at Vanderbilt University and an active duty intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. Nate was recently awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington, D.C. and will begin in September 2024.

Nate will use the generous grant funding to support research towards his Dissertation project, "Presidential Power: Navigating Armed Primacy and Congressional Conflict in the Cold War Era, 1977-1987." The project examines how the Carter and Reagan administrations expanded Presidential power and pushed Legislative boundaries through the application of Executive tools and the militarization of foreign policy objectives in the late Cold War period.

Sydney Todorov, Ph. D in Political Science

headshot of Sydney Todorov

Sydney Todorov is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. She is also a Nuclear Operations Officer in the U.S. Air Force and lifelong learner with research interests spanning nuclear policy, political psychology, public opinion, and crisis decision-making. Sydney holds a B.S. in Psychology from Duke University, a M.A. in Human Science from Saybrook University, and a M.A. in Counseling and Leadership from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

Sydney’s dissertation investigates the role of morality in nuclear policy opinions. Her research involves conducting interviews to better understand public beliefs/opinions on nuclear topics in order to glean insights that will inform a survey experiment testing the effectiveness of moral arguments in nuclear opinion formation. After graduation, she will be stationed in Washington D.C. where she will shape nuclear policy and advise senior leaders and government officials.