Monti Datta

Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond
I am an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond. I teach classes on international relations, research methods, global governance, anti-Americanism & world opinion, and human rights & modern day slavery.

This year, I am delighted to teach a class on Human Rights and Modern Day Slavery.

My current book, with Cambridge University Press, focuses on the consequences of anti-Americanism. Whereas most scholars focus on the sources of anti-Americanism (e.g., Chiozza 2009, Markovits 2007, Keohane and Katzenstein 2007), very little scholarship focuses on its impact for the United States. My research attempts to fill that gap. Using data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project and the National Archives, I examine the relationship between cross-national variation in favorable opinion toward the U.S. and: (1) voting alignment with the U.S. within the United Nations General Assembly from 1985 to 2007; (2) global consumption of iconic U.S. brand-name products, in addition to cross-national purchases of U.S. securities from 1995 to 2007; and (3) political, financial, and troop support for the 2003 U.S.-led war in Iraq. I also examine the extent to which the global popularity of Barack Obama, i.e., "Obamamania" influences how states interact with the U.S. The results of this study not only contribute to an ongoing debate between realists and liberals regarding the extent to which public opinion is a useful predictor for a given state’s foreign policy, but also provide substantial policy implications for the U.S. national interest.

I am also working on several projects about human trafficking and modern slavery with Kevin Bales at the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab. Some of the questions we are exploring include:

What are the causes of modern slavery?
What lessons, if any, can we apply from the historic anti-slavery movement to today?
What are the consequenes of modern slavery?
How can we measure modern slavery, including forced labor, sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and family-controlled trafficking?