Erika K. Masaki, Ph.D.
Research Agenda
My dissertation is entitled Institutional Dissonance: Theory and Evidence from International Environmental Agreements. I focused on explaining participation in and compliance with multilateral environmental agreements by looking at the use of reservations, which allow members of a treaty to "opt out" of certain provisions of the agreement. I did this through a statistical analysis of environmental treaties and the status of reservations. I also specifically examined the case of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the use of reservations. I conducted surveys and interviews of CITES Authorities to better understand compliance with the terms of the agreement. Finally, I developed a new theory of institutional dissonance to explain dysfunctional behavior institutions and organizations.
More broadly, I am interested in the study of environmental treaty design and environmental political theory and ethics. Using a mixed-methods approach, I use both large-N statistical analysis and qualitative case studies to answer important research questions in environmental politics. My interests in environmental political theory and ethics include Rousseau as a critique of anthropocentric environmental ethics and better understanding the role and relationship of humans and nature. I am also interested in studying the politics of rural education and veterans' experiences in higher education.
Peer Reviewed Publications
Masaki, Erika K. 2021. "Locked into the Anthropocene? Examining the Environmental Ethics of John Locke and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau ." Ethics and the Environment 26(1): 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/ethicsenviro.26.1.01
Non-Refereed Publications
Masaki, Erika K. 2017. ``The Socratic Method Today Track Summary." PS: Political Science 50(3): 856-57.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517000713
Selected Conference Activity
Open Education Conference - (November 2020)
Attendee: Participation sponsored by Open Oregon
Western Political Science Association - (April 2019)
Paper Presentation: Locked into the Anthropocene: Examining the Environmental Ethics of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
International Studies Association (April 2018)
Paper Presentation: Noncompliance in Multilateral Environmental Agreements: The Case of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
American Political Science Association (September 2017)
Paper Presentation: Reserved Participation: Reservations and Participation in MEAs
International Studies Association (February 2017)
Paper Presentation: Reserved Participation: The Effect of Reservations on Participation in Environmental Agreements
Roundtable Participant: Crossing Borders to Learn: Change, Opportunity, and Challenge
APSA Teaching and Learning (February 2017)
Participant and Discussant: The Socratic Method Today
Western Political Science Association (March 2016)
Paper Presentation: The "ASEAN Way" of Environmental Governance: A Theory or Environmental Cooperation in Southeast Asia
International Studies Association (March 2016)
Paper Presentation: The Institutional Design of CITES: Why Conserve when You can Reserve?
Western Political Science Association (April 2015)
Paper Presentation: Reserved Participation: The Determinants and Implications of CITES Reservations
International Studies Association - West (September 2014)
Paper Presentation: Asian Hegemony: China or Japan?
Paper Presentation: Southeast Asia's Environmental Policy: Perceptions and Realities
Research Training
UNLV Graduate Certificate in Social Science Research Methods (May 2016)
Requires 15 graduate-level courses in social science research methodology
ICPSR Summer Program (June 20 - July 25, 2016)
Workshop: Maximum Likelihood Estimation I: Generalized Linear Models
Workshop: Network Analysis I: Introduction
Lectures: Introduction to R; Introduction to LaTeX
UNLV Graduate College Research Certification (May 2016)
Program designed to train graduate students on issues related to conducting research
University of Arizona Methods School (January 8 - 10, 2015)
Workshop: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
Working Papers
"Institutional Dissonance: Suboptimal Behavior in International Environmental Institutions and Organizations"
Software Skills
R Stata LaTeX Microsoft Office
Additional Training
Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program (Expires: August 2021)
Social and Behavioral Institutional Review Board (IRB) Training