HJ Lab

Current Lab Members

• Kyshan Nichols-Smith, Graduate Assistant, Ph.D. Student, Department of Political Science, Duke University
• Myles Ndiritu, Student Lab Leader, Senior, International Studies Major, Morehouse College
• Kade Davis, Senior, Sociology Major, Morehouse College
• Amari Gray, Senior, Computer Science Major, Morehouse College
• Andrew Ratcliff, Senior, Political Science Major, Morehouse College
• Isaiah Riley, Junior, Political Science Major, Morehouse College
• Theron White, Junior, Political Science Major, Morehouse College

Previous Lab Member

• Hasan Henry, Ph.D. Student, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley

Collaborative Lab

• Quantitative History Workshop PI: Nathan Alexander, Ph.D. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Howard University

Ongoing Lab Projects

1. “Reading Between the Lines: Xi’s China Dream and the Future of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’’ with Hasan Henry

Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is purported to be the driving ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, but its features have shifted. Xi Jinping’s vision of China is unique to that of his predecessors, and his contributions to the ideological structure of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics remain understudied. This work uses Foucauldian discourse analysis as a theoretical foundation to suggest that Socialism with Chinese Characteristics should be understood as multidimensional. The authors employ a computational automated text analysis to explore how Xi’s introduction of the “China Dream” has changed the ideology of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. We apply natural language processing to our research by conducting web scrapping to collect Xi’s speeches from 2013 to 2023. Given the text data, we implemented frequency, sentiment scores, and word association analyses to examine the extent to which Xi’s speech has developed the multi-dimensional concept of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. This research could conclude that Xi has succeeded in linking his political propaganda and the Chinese ideological structure built after the reform and opening-up policy. Xi’s introduction of the “China Dream” into the canon of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics revises the ideology as a method of political action into one that emphasizes the political aesthetic of Xi’s China.

2. “Revisiting a Chinese Resource Curse: China’s Domination of the Global Battery Supply Chain Network’’ with Kyshan Nichols-Smith and Myles Ndiritu

Since the 2010’s the competition over crucial raw materials such as cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and nickel has increased dramatically due to the recent increase in demand for lithium batteries. China has capitalized on this surge in demand for lithium batteries by asserting its dominance in the international supply chain by capturing 80% of the global chemical refining process for these rare earth materials. With the rapid growth of the market for these raw materials and the dominance of China in the global battery supply chain, it becomes imperative to further scrutinize whether resource abundant countries may suffer from resource curse in this emerging market. This research aims to answer this inquiry by employing interdisciplinary methods. We utilize spatial network analyses from 55 different networks and use network centrality measures in a series of statistical analyses to investigate the link between global mineral trade network centrality and democracy level. We also use data on exports of key minerals to China to see if export volume to China has any impact on democracy level. The findings of our analysis suggest that neither mineral trade network centrality nor mineral export volume to China have any correlation with a country’s level of democracy. These results highlight that resource curse cannot currently be observed within the global battery supply chain network, and that mineral trade with China does not correlate with a difference in democracy level.

3. “Examining Post-Shelby Polling Location Closures in Georgia” with Kyshan Nichols-Smith, Myles Ndiritu, and Amari Gray

The Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision weakened federal oversight, coinciding with widespread polling-place changes. This study tests whether such changes in Georgia disproportionately burden Black voters - and how these effects interact with poverty, infrastructure, and distance. Using a novel panel combining statewide polling-place records, voter files across presidential cycles, and the American Community Survey (ACS) tract demographics from 2016-2024, we estimate event-history models of polling-place closure; use GIS to map relocations and distance; and fit voter- and tract-level models assessing how changes in proximity affect turnout, with attention to race-class intersections. A Fulton County case study provides process-level evidence on administrative decisions and community responses. Closures and relocations are more likely in tracts with higher shares of Black and low-income residents. Increases in distance to assigned polling places reduce accessibility and depress turnout among Black voters, with the largest effects in poor, infrastructure-constrained areas. The case study highlights unintended consequences of consolidation, including uneven information dissemination and transportation burdens. The paper extends cost- and habit-based models of voting to demonstrate how race and class jointly shape exposure to and impact of polling-place change. The results illuminate post-Shelby risks and the hidden costs of decentralized state voting practices.

4. “Powering Competition: Energy Vulnerability, Economic Coercion, and the Geopolitics of the Lithium Battery Supply Chain” with Myles Ndiritu

The global scramble for critical battery minerals – lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite – has intensified with the rise of electric vehicles, placing strategic weight on upstream refining and midstream processing dominated by China. We argue that lithium-battery security constitutes a “new energy security” centered on electrochemical capacity rather than fuel flows, and that U.S.-China rivalry over this supply chain reshapes trade networks through geoeconomic coercion. Combining multilayer trade-network analysis (raw carbonate, hydroxide, and finished cells) with interrupted time-series models, we examine how policy shocks and tariffs reconfigure countries’ positions (eigenvector, hub, authority, in-/out-degree). We find a consistent pattern of diversification without proportional volume growth: unweighted connectivity increases while value-weighted centrality declines, indicating risk spreading, partial re-shoring, and thinner ties per partner. Tariff increases compress weighted prominence but expand partner counts for both importers and exporters; alliance alignment conditions these adjustments, with U.S. allies diversifying and China-aligned states concentrating ties. Short-run COVID- and coercion-related disruptions reduce import partners, followed by gradual re-embedding, especially in intermediates. These results show how great-power competition over batteries propagates through network structure, illuminating the availability-affordability-resilience trade-offs that will shape the electrified economy.

5. “Trade War Revisited: Analyzing Potential Effects of U.S. Tariffs on International Trade Network & Developing Countries in Africa” with Myles Ndiritu, Kade Davis, Andrew Ratcliff, Isaiah Riley, and Theron White

In 2025, the United States broadened its trade war, extending tariffs beyond China to other major partners. While most studies focus on disruptions to major powers’ economies, few examine developing countries, particularly in Africa. This paper addresses that gap using a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design. By analyzing trade and tariff data, it not only measures past effects but also estimates how the evolving trade war will continue shaping African countries’ economies and conflicts.