The Spire

Matt Nickerson ‘24

Chief Features Editor

“Can I, too, be a lobbyist?” 

These were the first words of senior Riley Millburne’s thesis at the end of her time in the Washington program this past spring, “DC Lobbying, Policymaking, and Networking: A Sociotechnical Perspective.” Out of the twenty-three research projects from the Spring 2023 semester, Riley’s was awarded the Maurizio Vannicelli Washington Semester Away Program Award, named after the former director of the Washington program who passed away. She joins Caitlin Kawamura ’24, who was awarded this past spring for her Fall 2022 project. Among the benefits of the award are recognition at graduation in the program and with other college-wide awards, a bound copy of her project, and the opportunity to give a public lecture, which Riley did in the Rehm Library on Nov. 2.

The event was introduced by Michelle Sterk-Barrett, the director of the J.D. Power Center. She first had the attending students who participated in the spring semester program to stand, so the audience could recognize their hard work, and then recognized former DC program director Gary DeAngelis, who recently retired from the position after decades. She then introduced Chris Murray, the new program director who was visiting Holy Cross for the very first time. Murray then spoke, stating that with Riley’s project, he and the four other members of the deciding committee “unanimously came to the right selection.” In her project, he said, Riley used her other major, Anthropology, and demonstrated experiential learning: blending the practical with the historical, academic, and theoretical. Writing on lobbying is typically “incomplete” and “cynical,” but Riley utilized ethnographic research to depict her observations of client meetings and political events at Flywheel Government Solutions. It is not the first time Riley has transferred what she has learned in Anthropology outside of her major– through her Anthropology of Law class with Professor Douglas Bafford, Riley was able to connect and work with Dismas House, an organization which helps previously incarcerated people in Worcester with reentering society (Holy Cross Newsroom, 5-1-2023).

With introductions complete, Riley went up the podium to give her presentation. She began with a series of humorous images, composed of the negative stereotypes held towards lobbying. While most people associate the career with backdoor deals and discussions over drinks, Riley stated that in actuality, lobbying requires a great deal of insight and background information, such as knowledge of emerging technology, which she witnessed employed in the successful efforts to pass a bill into a statute regarding water filtration (an cause that is clearly moral). Riley then cited the example of Jack Abramoff, an infamous lobbyist whose immoral actions led to regulation reforms (lobbyists can now no longer give gifts), as an example of how lobbyists are not fully understood. Abramoff may have made the cover of TIME Magazine, but his “social schemes concealed his technical knowledge,” Riley said. She defines this technical knowledge as sociotechnical relations, an integration of moral and social frameworks. Lobbyists “need to be masters of the “soft pitch,”” Riley says– and they should be recognized as truly skillful for their ability to navigate different messages and audiences. To conclude her presentation, she explained her thinking through several systems, such as the “Black Boxes” metaphor by Bruno Latour and “TENs Terminology.” Upon concluding, she thanked many including Murray, the J.D. Power Center, and her project advisor, Sociology and Anthropology Professor Jeremy Jones. 

“I thought Riley did a wonderful job explaining the complexities of the lobbying industry, as society often paints it with such a broad, negative, and generic brush. Riley showed how lobbying is one of the most important tools available to individuals, consumers, industries, and political organizations within the nation, and that it may not be as inherently evil as popular media makes it out to be,” says Sam Silvestro ‘24, a senior who also participated in the DC program this past spring with Riley. “Riley’s thesis is inherently linked with her experience at Flywheel Government Solutions, which was founded by a HC alumnus and staffed by many alumni. She was not only able to see lobbying in action, but she was also able to see the human side of small-scale lobbying. The work on her thesis was intimately connected to her ability to see her fellow lobbyists as people, not caricatures, and she successfully conveyed that message in her presentation.” 

Chris Murray reflects on how Riley’s integration of her anthropology knowledge into her research earned her the Vannicelli Award. He reiterates that studies on lobbyists are rather incomplete, due to the media’s idea that “lobbyists = corruption” and that they merely help the wealthy and connected get what they want. But in truth, he says, the job is a lot less glamorous and a lot more burdened with knowledge, experience, and a reliance on details. Additionally, it is difficult to study compared to other aspects of political science such as Congress, because while the latter has a finite number of members, the former is neither quantifiable nor publicly available. Considering all of that, Chris says, “Riley’s anthropological methodology stood out. She was able to get rid of the simplistic assumptions, and show nuance.” Chris stresses that several other projects did an impressive job in integrating their other majors which is why the program listed all other participants as Vannicelli Runner-Ups. It’s a “celebration of the class, as well as the winner,” says Chris, “as well as [a] recognition of advisors…[the program in] DC wouldn’t work without them.” But he says, in Riley’s work, the anthropological concepts and theories she used were innovative, and demonstrated a totally different way of thinking about DC. This type of work “couldn’t have happened while she was on campus,” says Chris. He remarks that Riley mentions in the project itself that she sees herself differently now– even just from how she was before the program’s start in January.

“I really did not expect to win the Vanicelli, because my thesis was nontraditional and interdisciplinary,” Riley admits. “Because of its roots in anthropology, I included sections written introspectively in the first person. I thought that these components would make my thesis seem less serious. [But] I’m so glad that the committee took these parts seriously. In my thesis, I supported these real-time observations with theory and scholarship, using a case study and analysis model. Overall, the project was a creative and enriching endeavor. I’m happy it is being recognized, but I was more than content with what I learned without the award to back it up. The presentation was fun to write, and I tried to make it interesting and understandable for the audience. On the broadest level, I want people to appreciate the good work that lobbyists do, understanding that their jobs are hard, and require deep social and technical skills.” 

The lecture program concluded with a reception with refreshments, poster signings, and Washington participants willing to discuss their experience and own projects. But before that occurred, there was a question-and-answer session. In response to an audience question, Riley spoke of the excitement of meeting state governors but also the insight into viewing their staff interactions. The next and final question referred to the first sentence of her project: after all the research and experience she now has, could she be a lobbyist?

“Yes.”