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American Politics Seminar

The American Politics Seminar is a year-long speaker series that features leading scholars in American Politics. Invited scholars present cutting-edge research and engage in lively debate with faculty and graduate students. The seminar is made possible partially through a generous grant from the Bankard Fund for Political Economy at the University of Virginia. The Seminar is organized by Rachel Potter and Albert Rivero. Papers are generally sent to invitees in the week or so prior to each talk.

Current Series

2023-2024

Daniel Hopkins
Professor, University of Pennsylvania
2023-2024

Laurel Harbridge-Yong
Associate Professor, Northwestern University
2023-2024

Ashley Jardina
Assistant Professor, University of Virginia
2023-2024

Nicholas Valentino
Professor, University of Michigan
2023-2024

Efren Perez
Professor, University of California Los Angeles
2023-2024
Monroe Hall

Elizabeth Connors
Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina
2023-2024

Neil Malhotra
The Edith M. Cornell Professor of Political Economy, Stanford University
2023-2024
Monroe Hall

Kenneth Lowande
Associate Professor, University of Michigan
2023-2024

Current and Past Series

2021-2022

Spotlighting the Economy: Media Coverage and Mayoral Evaluations

Richard Burke
PhD Candidate, University of Virginia

Unification of Powers: When Effective Lawmakers Sponsor Presidential Proposals in Congress

Craig Volden
Professor, University of Virginia

Social Welfare Returns to Legislative Capacity: Evidence from the Opioid Epidemic

Srinivas “Chinnu” Parinandi
Assistant Professor, University of Colorado - Boulder

Does Receiving Government Assistance Shape Political Attitudes? Evidence from Agricultural Producers

Sarah Anzia
Associate Professor, University of California - Berkeley

Patricia Kirkland
Assistant Professor, Princeton University

Jonathan Kastellac
Associate Professor, Princeton University

Susan Haire
Professor, University of Georgia

Christina Kinane
Assistant Professor, Yale University

LaGina Gause
Assistant Professor, UCSD

Ian Turner
Assistant Professor, Yale University

Sharece Thrower
Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University

2020-2021

Candis Watts Smith
Associate Professor, Penn State

Black Migration in American Politics: 1915-1965

Keneshia Grant
Associate Professor, Howard University

Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners into a Political Force

Matthew LaCombe
Assistant Professor, Barnard College

“You’re Making it Harder for the Rest of Us!”: In-group Policing and Perceptions of Collective Costs

Hakeem Jefferson
Assistant Professor, Stanford University

Persecuted Christians? Understanding Evangelical Support for Trump

Michelle Margolis
Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

What Goes Without Saying: Navigating Political Discussion in America

Jaime Settle
Associate Professor, William & Mary

The Political Consequences of Ethnically Targeted Incarceration: Evidence from Japanese-American Internment During WWII America

Yamil Velez
Assistant Professor, Columbia University

2019-2020

George Washington's Regret: How American Politics Turned Tribal (1800 - 2044)

Jim Morone
John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy & Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies, Brown University

Support the Poor or Punish the Rich? How People Consider Inequality

Yanna Krupnikov
Associate Professor of Political Science, Stony Brook University

Building a Conservative State: Partisan Polarization and the Redeployment of Administrative Power

Sid Milkis and Nick Jacobs
University of Virginia

The Two Faces of Sexism: Hostility, Benevolence, and American Elections

Nicholas J.G. Winter
Associate Professor, University of Virginia

2018-2019

Support the Poor or Punish the Rich? How People Consider Inequality

Yanna Krupnikov
Stonybook University

George Washington’s Regret: How American Politics Turned Tribal (1800-1944)

Jim Morone
Brown University

Talk by Ellie Powell

Ellie Powell
Northwestern Universty

Talk by Richard Fox

Richard Fox
Loyola Marymount University

Ambivalent Sexism and Election 2016

Nicholas Winter
Associate Professor, University of Virginia

Building a Conservative State: Partisan Polarization and the Redeployment of Administrative Power

Sid Milkis and Nick Jacobs
University of Virginia

2016-2017

Making Young Citizens: Rethinking Schools' Role in Students' Civic Development

John Holbein
Brigham Young University

Policy Preferences and Policy Change

Chris Warshaw
MIT

Who Fights the Good (Party) Fight? Individual Incentives to Engage in Partisan Messaging in the U.S. Senate

Molly Reynolds
Brookings Institution

Decentralizing Pork

Pamela McCann
University of Southern California

The Public Cost of Unilateral Action

Andrew Reeves
Washington University in St. Louis

Gilded Age Doughfaces and Reluctant Reformers: The Northern Democratic Party and Civil Rights at the Turn of the Century (cancelled)

David Bateman
Cornell University

John Patty
Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

Do Constituents Know (Or Care) About the Lawmaking Effectiveness of their Representatives?

Craig Volden

Natural Disasters, 'Partisan Retrospection,' and U.S. Presidential Elections

Jeff Jenkins, Boris Heersink, and Brenton Peterson
University of Virginia

2023-2024

Ashley Jardina
Assistant Professor, University of Virginia

Laurel Harbridge-Yong
Associate Professor, Northwestern University

Daniel Hopkins
Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Nicholas Valentino
Professor, University of Michigan

Efren Perez
Professor, University of California Los Angeles

Elizabeth Connors
Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina

Neil Malhotra
The Edith M. Cornell Professor of Political Economy, Stanford University

Kenneth Lowande
Associate Professor, University of Michigan

2022-2023

Setting the Supreme Court's Policy Agenda

Deborah Beim
University of Michigan

Unveiling CREATIVE: Unpacking and Understanding Online Advertising Beyond Candidates

Erika Franklin Fowler
Wesleyan University

Partisan Commenting: Evidence from State and Local Government Involvement in Federal Rulemaking

Mary Kroeger
University of North Carolina

Body Politic: Disgust, Partisanship, and Public Opinion on Viral Outbreaks

John Sides
Vanderbilt University

The Political Development of American Debt Relief

Chloe Thurston
Northwestern University