Nikko Kim: Undergraduate Research in DURP

During the fall 2024 semester, political science student Nikko Kim participated in the Department of Political Science's Distinguished Undergraduate Research Program (DURP). DURP provides political science students the opportunity to work closely with faculty on their ongoing research projects. In the DURP, Nikko worked with Professor Ron Krebs on his research on militarism. Read the below Q&A to learn more about Nikko's DURP experience.

Nikko Kim in front of Walter Library.

What research project did you work on?

Our project focuses on militarism, or how on a global scale, societies venerate the military. This specific DURP examines how the military features in national discourses by analyzing military-themed holidays—such as Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and Armed Forces Day—across the top 50 military spenders worldwide. Ultimately, we aimed to observe whether, and how, the role of the military in these celebrations has evolved over time.

What was your role in the research project?

My role involved conducting research using search engines and databases like Google and Factiva to gather information for each country. I focused first on identifying basic details such as the date, establishment, and purpose of military-themed holidays. But, most importantly, I searched for evidence of national ceremonies or government organized celebrations in specific years, ideally two from the 2000s and two from the 2010s. These formed the data points of our research, allowing us to draw comparisons and conclusions across and within countries.

What skills did you learn?

I have definitely had to hone my raw research and data collection skills to a greater degree. For example, brute forcing Google can be very inefficient and time consuming, so I have been using more advanced search tools, playing with time windows, region restrictions, and different language searches in order to improve efficiency and relevancy.

What was your favorite part of the program?

My favorite part was probably being able to dedicate a lot of time to niche, interesting research, on topics and areas that I usually would have no reason to look into otherwise. To really be able to purposefully sink my teeth into and explore them in depth, all under the guidance of a knowledgeable, insightful mentor, who readily provided valuable feedback and direction throughout the semester.

What advice would you give to other students interested in the DURP?

My advice is that if you are at all interested in the DURP and you have the time to spare in your schedule, absolutely go for it. There is a whole variety of different professors passionate about an equally diverse variety of fascinating research topics, offering plenty of very accessible opportunities to get involved and contribute.

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