Political Science PhD student Alper H. Yagci has received a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for academic year 2015-2016. The prestigious Mellon/ACLS Fellowship carries with it a $30,000 stipend, additional research support funds, and professional development support for entering the academic job market. Yagci is one of 70 fellows awarded a fellowship from a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants.

Yagci will use the fellowship to complete his dissertation, "Managing the Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses to Transgenic Seeds in Developing Countries." 

"My dissertation studies the rules regulating agriculture with transgenic seeds," he says. "Why do some countries prohibit these seeds in their territory, while others encourage? ...[W]hat leads to the different intellectual property (IP) protection systems?" He uses case studies of Argentina, Brazil and Turkey "to explain why statesmen in each country prioritized one agenda over the others in their policy decisions." His findings should demonstrate the range of options available to developing countries as they make their own policy decisions around emerging -- and often misunderstood or understudied-- technologies.

Yagci's dissertation is chaired by Professor Peter M. Haas and his research was previously supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Grant from the National Science Foundation. He is also recipient of a Dissertation Proposal Development Grant from the Social Science Research Council.