Neil Garrett Vander Most Mailing Address: 306 S. Prairie Street, #1, Champaign, IL, 61820 Office: 321 International Studies Bldg., 910 S. Fifth St., Champaign, IL, 61820 Home: (217) 721-1284 Email: vanderm1@illinois.edu EDUCATION University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 2015 Ph.D in Political Science Area of Concentration: Comparative Politics Minor: European Union Studies University of Illinois: Champaign-Urbana, Urbana, IL 2010 M.A. in Political Science Area of Concentration: Comparative Politics Thesis: Far Right Parties, Anti-Immigration, and Morality in the Netherlands and in Europe University of California: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 2008 B.A. in Political Science Graduated Cum Laude and with College Honors DISSERTION Title: "Beyond Assimilation and Multiculturalism: A Social Psychological Recon struction of Immigrant Integration in the Low Countries" Committee: Carol Skalnik Leff (Chair), Robert D. Pahre, James H. Kuklinski, Thomas J. Rudolph The integration of vast numbers of migrants into European countries from North Africa and the Middle East continues pose challenges for policy makers. The many differences between these immigrants and the native population can make maintaining a cohesive society difficult. In order to increase trust between citizens and migrant populations, various forms of multicultural and assimilatory policies have been enacted with mixed success. This study challenges the usefulness of the current way people think about integration ideologies, namely as a choice between assimilation and multiculturalism. I hypothesize that we can better analyze public attitudes about integration by conceptualizing integration as a continuum of possibilities arranged along a scale of overall permissiveness. Using this continuum, we can entertain new and more effective ideologies as policy options. During my field research, I conducted surveys with native-born citizens in the Netherlands and Belgium to gather information about the appeal and usefulness of these new integration ideologies. This paper finds evidence that the more moderate ideologies of interculturalism and liberalism as identity create stronger feelings of trust toward immigrant while minimizing in-group projection. Furthermore, in Belgium, interculturalism is seen as more desirable to the respondents than the current more extreme policies of multiculturalism and assimilation.
PUBLICATIONS Vander Most, Neil. An Unusual European Election. The Diplomatist. Vol. 2, No. 5. May 2014. Pgs. 8-10 Vander Most, Neil. The Netherlands Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Centage Learning. 13 th ed. Vol. 5. 2012. Pgs. 491-509 Whalley, Lucy et al. 2011. CREATE: Pre-Intervention Analytical Framework. Construction Engineering Laboratory Technical Note ERDC/CERL TN-DRAFT. Champaign, IL: US Army Engineer Research and Development Center. WORK EXPERIENCE Visiting Coordinator of Academic Programs European Union Center at the University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign 01/2016 - Primary Instructor University of Great Falls - Introduction to Comparative Politics (Online) Primary Instructor North Dakota State University - Politics of the European Union (Online) - Introduction to Comparative Politics (Online) Research Assistant European Union Center at the University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign 01/2016-08/2014-01/2015-11/2015 Teaching Assistant (Undergraduate Courses) University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign - Introduction to American Politics - Introduction to Comparative Politics - The [American] Presidency - Introduction to Political Theory - Introduction to Political Science - Politics of the European Union (Online) - European Union Institutions and Governance (Graduate Course) 09/2008-11/2015 Primary Instructor University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign - Foundations of Political Science (Online) - Politics of the European Union - Public Speaking 06/2013-12/2014 Research Assistant U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Engineer Research and Development Center 09/2011-06/2012 Research Assistant Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Washington D.C 09/2007-12/2007
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS Co-Authored the proposal for Jean Monnet Center of Excellence grant: 565321 -EPP-1-2015-1- US-EPPJMO-CoE (PI Anna Stenport, European Union Center) - 80,000 Co-Authored the proposal for Getting to Know Europe grant: Europe Aid/136-813/DD/ACT/US- 021 (PI Anna Stenport, European Union Center) - 95,000 English native language Dutch read, write, and speak at an intermediate level Computer literate in: Datadesk, R and SAS Programming Languages, MediaLab, SurveyMonkey, Blackboard, Moodle PROFESSIONAL SERVICE University of Illinois Fulbright Grant Reviewer 06/2015 Reviewer for Political Behavior 07/2012, 09/2013 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Midwestern Political Science Association 09/2009 American Political Science Association 09/2012 AWARDS Teacher Ranked Excellent by their Students Spring 2011, Fall 2012, and Spring 2013 Spring 2014 European Union Center Graduate Research Travel Grant ($1300) 11/2013 KU Leuven University of Illinois Faculty and Ph.D Candidate Exchange Program ($6600) 08/2013-11/2013 Ferber Sudman Dissertation Award Honorable Mention ($400) 07/2013 06/2012 -
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship ($7500) - Attended Summer Dutch courses at the Universities of Antwerp and Amsterdam Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship ($7500) - Attended Summer Dutch courses at the Universities of Groningen and Antwerp Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship ($7500) - Attended the Summer Dutch Institute at the University of Indiana, Bloomington 08/2012 06/2010-08/2010 05/2009-08/2009 CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Elite Strategies Promoting Immigrant Integration in the Netherlands and Flanders Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference (April) 2015 Expanding Policy Options for Immigrant Integration Presented at the American Political Science Association Conference (August) 2014 Finding the Middle Path: The Strength of National Identities in the European Union Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference (April) 2014 Seeing oneself and the other: How National Identity impacts Opinions on Immigration in the Netherlands and Belgium Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference (April) 2013 Determinants of Identity-based Trust in Ten Western European Countries Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference (April) 2012 Failure of multiculturalism? Rise of far-right, antiimmigration political parties in Europe Presented at the UIUC European Union Center: Summer Curriculum Workshop (June) 2011 Far Right Parties, Anti-Immigration, and Social Conservatism in the Netherlands and Europe Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference (April) and at the Western US Graduate Research Workshop on the European Union (May) 2010
REFERENCES Carol Leff. Assoc. Professor: Dept. of Political Science, UIUC. (217) 493-9139, leffc@illinois.edu Robert Pahre. Professor: Dept. of Political Science, UIUC. (217) 333-2851, pahre@illinois.edu Thomas Rudolph. Professor: Dept. of Political Science, UIUC. (217) 244-2885, rudolph@illinois.edu