Feature: Amina Hasan Presents at Eldersveld Emerging Scholars Conference

This article was originally featured on the University of Minnesota's Political Science website on November 24, 2025.

Amina Hasan, a senior double majoring in political science and Spanish, had long wanted to study politics because of her lived experience in the Middle East. Her choice to study political science was further solidified after taking POL 1001: American Democracy in a Changing World her freshman year with Professor Scott Abernathy. She said she "loved the class, enjoyed his teaching style, and thought he was fascinating."

Meaningful Mentorship

Amina had doubts about continuing to study political science in the spring of her freshman year when she met Professor Jane Sumner during a Faculty Friday event hosted by the Department of Political Science. Although Amina had never taken a class with Professor Sumner, she emailed her after the event and was invited to stop by Professor Sumner's office with any questions she had about political science.

After finals, Amina finally met Professor Sumner in-person. She answered Amina's questions about political science and talked about other areas of interest, such as poetry, making Professor Sumner feel relatable and comfortable to talk with. She offered to advise Amina on a future research project, despite the topic being outside her area of expertise. Over the summer, Professor Sumner met with Amina to help her work on her proposal and narrow down the focus of her topic. In the fall, Amina applied for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) for the following spring term to explore the political and social impact arpillera workshops had on women in Chile.

Having Professor Sumner as an advisor was rewarding as the experience gave Amina space and time to explore and discuss a variety of research interests. During her UROP, Amina found evidence supporting the Catholic Church's role in the arpillera movement. She went to Professor Sumner with this discovery and was encouraged to continue looking into the topic. With the space to further research this element, Amina's interest grew, leading her to continue looking into the Church's role for her current Capstone project for her Spanish major.

Exploring New Research Interests

Amina also conducted a research project this summer through the TRIO McNair Scholars Program. She worked with Professor of Sociology Enid Logan, who is conducting a qualitative study on the 2024 election and social issues. Although Amina's research was a part of the study, the focus differed—she focused on Muslim Americans and their identity constructs, and how these constructs influence their political interests.

Amina Hasan at the University of Minnesota McNair Conference, October 2025.

Amina and other team members interviewed Muslim undergraduates at the University of Minnesota. After she transcribed and analyzed the interviews, Amina noted that even though Muslim Americans are often placed into one group, they are not homogenous. Rather, among the students she interviewed, each had a different political identity. Those political identities differed based on what identity was most important to them. To some interviewees, particularly Black Muslims, race is most important to them and is the identity through which they view U.S. politics. Other identities that shape political identities included gender, religion, immigration status, and being first- or second-generation. This was particularly interesting to Amina because, even though all interviewees were Muslim, their religious identity was not important to them all, yet that attitude is not well known. This evidence formed Amina's argument: Muslim Americans are not a homogenous group and the diversity of race and ethnicity in the group can cause variations in their political behavior.

This project was a "life-changing" opportunity for Amina for numerous reasons. Firstly, it helped her discover what she is interested in. She previously felt all over the place—she wanted to study Latin American politics, then Middle Eastern politics. By summer's end, Amina felt more confident about what areas she would like to continue to explore. The McNair program gave her the research experience she needed as well as a sense of community. In McNair, there were students from different academic areas, building a supportive community based on being McNair scholars, rather than their academic backgrounds. The McNair team itself was also very supportive of the scholars. "They [Anthony, Kayla, and Amani] really try to help you as much as they possibly can," reflected Amina. "But they also challenge you in a way where you feel very challenged, but also very supported. They go out of their way to take care of the scholars. It's such a positive environment that anyone would truly be lucky to be in because Anthony, Kayla, and Amani place a lot of importance on cultivating an encouraging and empathetic community among scholars."

A Place in Academia

After the McNair program, Amina was contacted by Professor Nazita Lajevardi at Michigan State University, encouraging her to apply to the University of Michigan's 2025 Eldersveld Emerging Scholars Conference. She discussed the opportunity with Professor Sumner, who told her a former student participated years ago and is now in graduate school, and wrote a letter of recommendation for her, which Amina believes is a key reason she was selected.

At the conference, Amina and the nine other selected scholars spent most of their time with faculty or graduate students or presenting. They had the chance to hear about the graduate students' research and experience in graduate school, which was fascinating and insightful. Amina presented her research from the McNair program and "loved how they interacted with [her] topic and showed so much interest in it."

The entire experience was "very fulfilling." After the conference, Amina reflected that she "felt there was a place for [her] in academia."

Following Amina's graduation this fall, she hopes to continue studying political science, specifically American politics with a focus on political behavior, in graduate school and eventually become a professor. These experiences, from the research itself to presenting and socializing with other scholars, have helped her be more prepared and confident in taking these next steps.

By Sophia Paschke, communications associate.