Grad Workshop: Institutional Choices & Societal Consequences

Institutional Choices & Societal Consequences

This workshop brings together two emerging scholars whose work critically examines how institutions shape — and often constrain — social and political life.This will be a hybrid event. Register to receive Zoom link, or attend in-person.

• Julia Cope (Annenberg School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania) explores how the American advertising industry confronts climate change. Her study of AdAge and Adweek reveals the fragile compromises advertising professionals craft between profit-driven market logics and civic or environmental responsibility. By unpacking these discourses, Cope shows how concerns for sustainability are reframed through brand authenticity and reputation, exposing deeper tensions in neoliberal democratic life.Presenting: Grappling with Green: How the trade press justifies and critiques climate concern in advertising
• Kevin Yüh (Rice University / Zhejiang University) analyzes the use of referendums in advancing LGBTQ+ rights, with a focus on Taiwan’s same-sex marriage referendum. Drawing on comparative perspectives across Asia, Yu argues that while direct democracy may appear to empower minority rights, in practice it often undermines them, revealing the complex and sometimes contradictory role of referendums in shaping institutional legitimacy and social change.Presenting: Are Referendums a Bad Idea for the LGBTQ+ Community: Comparative Perspectives From Taiwan to Asia

Together, these presentations highlight how institutional choices — from corporate self-regulation to democratic mechanisms — carry profound societal consequences, shaping the possibilities and limitations of accountability, equity, and justice in the contemporary world. Full bios and paper abstracts are available on amc.sas.upenn.edu. Register to receive full papers.Lunch provided!