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

The Electoral Effects of Incumbent Wealth Revisited
Darrian Stacy
Assistant Professor, United States Naval Academy

Contesting the Reach of the Rights Revolution: The Reagan Administration and the Unitary Executive
John Dearborn
Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University

Survey Sampling in the Global South Using Facebook Advertisements
Parrish Bergquist
Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Deborah Schildkraut
Professor, Tufts University

Adam Berinsky
Mitsui Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

D. Sunshine Hillygus
Professor, Duke University
Past Series
2023-2024
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
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
2022-2023
Deborah Beim
University of Michigan
Setting the Supreme Court's Policy Agenda
Erika Franklin Fowler
Wesleyan University
Unveiling CREATIVE: Unpacking and Understanding Online Advertising Beyond Candidates
Mary Kroeger
University of North Carolina
Partisan Commenting: Evidence from State and Local Government Involvement in Federal Rulemaking
John Sides
Vanderbilt University
Body Politic: Disgust, Partisanship, and Public Opinion on Viral Outbreaks
Chloe Thurston
Northwestern University
The Political Development of American Debt Relief
2021-2022
LaGina Gause
Assistant Professor, UCSD
Ian Turner
Assistant Professor, Yale University
Sharece Thrower
Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
Richard Burke
PhD Candidate, University of Virginia
Spotlighting the Economy: Media Coverage and Mayoral Evaluations
Craig Volden
Professor, University of Virginia
Unification of Powers: When Effective Lawmakers Sponsor Presidential Proposals in Congress
Srinivas “Chinnu” Parinandi
Assistant Professor, University of Colorado - Boulder
Social Welfare Returns to Legislative Capacity: Evidence from the Opioid Epidemic
Sarah Anzia
Associate Professor, University of California - Berkeley
Does Receiving Government Assistance Shape Political Attitudes? Evidence from Agricultural Producers
Patricia Kirkland
Assistant Professor, Princeton University
Jonathan Kastellac
Associate Professor, Princeton University
Susan Haire
Professor, University of Georgia
Christina Kinane
Assistant Professor, Yale University
2020-2021
Yamil Velez
Assistant Professor, Columbia University
The Political Consequences of Ethnically Targeted Incarceration: Evidence from Japanese-American Internment During WWII America
Candis Watts Smith
Associate Professor, Penn State
Keneshia Grant
Associate Professor, Howard University
Black Migration in American Politics: 1915-1965
Matthew LaCombe
Assistant Professor, Barnard College
Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners into a Political Force
Hakeem Jefferson
Assistant Professor, Stanford University
“You’re Making it Harder for the Rest of Us!”: In-group Policing and Perceptions of Collective Costs
Michelle Margolis
Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Persecuted Christians? Understanding Evangelical Support for Trump
Jaime Settle
Associate Professor, William & Mary
What Goes Without Saying: Navigating Political Discussion in America
2019-2020
Sid Milkis and Nick Jacobs
University of Virginia
Building a Conservative State: Partisan Polarization and the Redeployment of Administrative Power
Nicholas J.G. Winter
Associate Professor, University of Virginia
The Two Faces of Sexism: Hostility, Benevolence, and American Elections
Jim Morone
John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy & Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies, Brown University
George Washington's Regret: How American Politics Turned Tribal (1800 - 2044)
Yanna Krupnikov
Associate Professor of Political Science, Stony Brook University
Support the Poor or Punish the Rich? How People Consider Inequality
2018-2019
Ellie Powell
Northwestern Universty
Talk by Ellie Powell
Richard Fox
Loyola Marymount University
Talk by Richard Fox
Nicholas Winter
Associate Professor, University of Virginia
Ambivalent Sexism and Election 2016
Sid Milkis and Nick Jacobs
University of Virginia
Building a Conservative State: Partisan Polarization and the Redeployment of Administrative Power
Yanna Krupnikov
Stonybook University
Support the Poor or Punish the Rich? How People Consider Inequality
Jim Morone
Brown University
George Washington’s Regret: How American Politics Turned Tribal (1800-1944)
2016-2017
Andrew Reeves
Washington University in St. Louis
The Public Cost of Unilateral Action
David Bateman
Cornell University
Gilded Age Doughfaces and Reluctant Reformers: The Northern Democratic Party and Civil Rights at the Turn of the Century (cancelled)
John Patty
Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Craig Volden
Do Constituents Know (Or Care) About the Lawmaking Effectiveness of their Representatives?
Jeff Jenkins, Boris Heersink, and Brenton Peterson
University of Virginia
Natural Disasters, 'Partisan Retrospection,' and U.S. Presidential Elections
John Holbein
Brigham Young University
Making Young Citizens: Rethinking Schools' Role in Students' Civic Development
Chris Warshaw
MIT
Policy Preferences and Policy Change
Molly Reynolds
Brookings Institution
Who Fights the Good (Party) Fight? Individual Incentives to Engage in Partisan Messaging in the U.S. Senate
Pamela McCann
University of Southern California
Decentralizing Pork