Samantha Zuhlke can teach you about nearly anything: ocean depths, food chains, robots, even JFK’s assassination.
Zuhlke, assistant professor in the School of Planning and Public Affairs and researcher affiliate in the Center for Social Science Innovation (CSSI), was like a human encyclopedia during her over half-decade long job at National Geographic.
Zuhlke landed the gig due to her passion for the environment, a feeling first borne from endless childhood days hiking and swimming in a rural upstate New York park. The park uniquely doubled as the permanent home for several communities, sparking Zuhlke’s curiosity about the relationship between humans and nature.
Earning a degree in geography from Colgate University was a potent cure to this wonder, as was Zuhlke’s time at National Geographic. While there, she first developed curriculum about oceans for K-12 classrooms.
She also oversaw many programs. To name just a few: the Guiness World Record attempt, basketball court-sized maps that travelled across the country, and a special program she devised, that challenged students to engineer solutions for the snags photographers encounter in the wild.
Finally, Zuhlke would take National Geographic film, television, and magazine content, which chronicled diverse topics like politician deaths, and create free, online educational materials.
While Zuhlke found satisfaction in these various roles, she always knew she wanted to attend graduate school. “What for?” was the million-dollar question. Over time, the silhouette of her research interests began to slowly form, as she realized the variety in funding mechanisms at National Geographic.
Although many of her colleagues were funded by the federal government, her ocean education job was funded by a grant from a private business. Zuhlke began wondering about the relationships between non-profits like National Geographic, private businesses, and governmental organizations.
“I became curious about why governments give grants to non-profits. If they wanted to do something, why don’t they just do it? Or even with private industry - the reason I had a job was because a company had influence,” Zuhlke explains.
“I started developing a real curiosity around these institutional relationships.”
Rebuilding trust one water droplet at a time
To explore this curiosity, Zuhlke earned a PhD in Political Science from Texas A&M University. Now, at the University of Iowa, she zeroes in on institutional relationships, and how the public fits in. Why do people donate to non-profits? And why do people trust the government?
Zuhlke’s affinity for the environment never faded, so she often explores these questions through an environmental lens. In particular, she has conducted substantial research on drinking water, discovering that people’s trust in the government often shrinks when their water is unsafe.
To rebuild this trust, Zuhlke argues in her full-length book and its public-facing comic book counterpart, governments should consider investments in superior and accessible drinking water services, especially for communities not historically well-served.
Zuhlke also points out that U.S. water regulations are traditionally designed to reduce the risk of harmful contaminants, and often do not address water’s aesthetic elements, like taste, smell, and color.
Since people commonly shut off the faucet when these sensory cues are haywire, assuming the water is unsafe, and then turn to unhealthy substitutes, Zuhlke believes governmental regulations should expand to include aesthetic concerns.
CSSI finance and post-award grant manager, Ryan Baumert, helped Zuhlke recruit and hire undergraduate research assistants for this line of research, where the students collected and tested the water quality from nearby businesses.
“I approach teaching students by creating experiences where they actually see and feel what is happening. It’s really interesting to see how students relate to organizations on a micro-level,” she voices.
While water might initially seem like a benign topic to convey public trust in the government, Zuhlke notes that water is everywhere – when we brush our teeth, use the bathroom, and consume our daily meals.
“Drinking water is this super tangible topic that’s really present in people’s lives, so it makes talking about abstract concepts like trust in the government really real for people,” Zuhlke explains.
The interplay between government and non-profits
Another thread of Zuhlke’s research studies how changes in the government and non-profit sectors impact the other sector and the public’s feelings about the sectors.
Prior research has revealed three primary hypotheses for how, following tide-turning changes, the relationship between these sectors unfolds: 1) when the government struggles, non-profits step up, 2) the two sectors work together, and 3) they function as adversaries.
Zuhlke suggests that all three hypotheses, at different times, can explain why her research has shown that shifts between Democratic and Republican presidents also lead to shifts in the type of non-profits prevalent in the U.S. For example, Democratic presidents are associated with increases in environment and animal related non-profits.
To advance her research on these topics and others, Zuhlke makes use of CSSI’s grant development resources, qualitative research services, and Write on Target. “They’re like a secret weapon for researchers on campus,” Zuhlke asserts.
To learn more about CSSI’s researcher affiliate program, please visit our website.
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