Cline Center for Advanced Social Research

The Cline Center wishes the best of luck to all University of Illinois students on final exams, projects, and papers! Remember to take breaks, stay organized, and keep a positive mindset as you tackle your exams and projects. To all the student employees at the Cline Center, thank you for balancing your academic responsibilities with your invaluable contributions to our work. You’ve got this! Here’s to finishing the semester strong and looking ahead to a well-deserved winter break ❄️

Data transparency is crucial when it comes to understanding the impact of policing on communities. That's why the Cline Center created the SPOTLITE registry—a comprehensive database that tracks police uses of lethal force across the United States. This innovative tool provides crucial data on use of force incidents, starting with 2014 to 2021, enabling communities, researchers, and policymakers to explore patterns and understand the broader context behind these events. With this data, we can start answering critical questions: Are reforms creating lasting changes in policing, or are they only temporary? By providing accurate, comprehensive data, we aim to identify reforms that reduce unnecessary uses of force and rebuild trust between communities and law enforcement. Learn more about how the SPOTLITE Project plans to shape the future of public safety. Learn more about SPOTLITE here:

At the Cline Center, our commitment to producing quality data is guided by our core values: collaboration, innovation, transparency, excellence, and difference-making. By working across disciplines and using cutting-edge tools, we strive to produce insights that not only meet the highest standards but also make a meaningful impact on societal well-being. Quality data isn’t just about numbers—it’s about driving change and fostering understanding.

As we close out Student Appreciation Week, we are reminded that our students’ work is essential to our missions here at the Cline Center. Their hard work in data analysis, research, and beyond is at the heart of the Cline Center’s success, and we are proud to be a part of each student’s professional journey. While we are at the end of Student Appreciation Week, know that you are always appreciated for the work you contribute to the advancement of social research!

This week, we celebrate student employees for Student Appreciation Week! Much of our work would not be possible if not done in collaboration with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign undergraduate and graduate students. From data analysis to research support, they are essential in advancing the Cline Center’s missions and goals. We are grateful to work with a group of diligent and creative Illinois students, and look forward to their future impacts on social research. Thank you students for all that you do!

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Meet Andrea Gerald Andrea is studying Political Science and has been with the Cline Center since October 2023. She currently works as an analyst for the Center’s SPOTLITE Project, and her tasks include reading hundreds of articles and extracting information from them to create concise summaries of instances of police lethal force. She is also responsible for picking out key information from articles that contribute to the data in SPOTLITE. Andrea says, "I am honored that my work contributes to research projects with an impact that reaches beyond Champaign. The Cline Center provides undergraduates with the unique opportunity to engage in meaningful work that has the potential to benefit society.”

The modern era of presidential campaigns is shaped by the campaigns that came before. In “Battleground: Electoral College Strategies, Execution, and Impact in the Modern Era”, Cline Center data is utilized to analyze and understand electoral college strategies. If you want to better understand why presidential campaigns work the way they do, you can find the book by Scott Althaus and co-authors here:

The Illinois News Bureau published a 'Behind the Scenes' article about this year's Cline Symposium. You can find their article here: https://buff.ly/3AncH3b Thank you to Cline Symposium organizers Scott Althaus, Jay Jennings, Ajay Singh, Ph.D., and Sheila Roberts, and special thanks to Braver Angels facilitators Matthew Hausman and Charles Stone and College Debates & Discourse Alliance's Doug Sprei for making this years Symposium such a success.

We had an impressive group of students participate in this year’s Cline Symposium discussing how to work across political divides. Between debates on social media’s role in moderating content and workshops on how to talk across lines of political difference, we are excited for students to take the skills they developed into their future endeavors. Special thanks to Doug Sprei and Braver Angels for creating and moderating a thorough debate experience for the students. We look forward to future symposiums where we can continue to collaborate with students to create space for important conversations.

I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research symposium. With the election approaching, it’s imperative that we learn how to communicate and bridge our political differences in a highly polarized country. A special thank you to Braver Angels for conducting workshops to help us navigate how to communicate and share our perspectives in a respectful and effective manner. Another thank you to my discussion leader Richard Cline Jr. for sharing his valuable expertise with me and my peers. Lastly, I want to shout out Doug Sprei and College Debates & Discourse Alliance for moderating our debate and allowing me to step out of my comfort zone and speak to a crowd about my knowledge in foreign policies. #politicalscience #AdvancedResearch #Socialresearch #BraverAngels