U.S. News Ranks Graduate Program #12
U.S. News and World Report has ranked Washington University in St. Louis' political science graduate program #12 in the country.
Political Science Newsletter
Fall 2021 Edition
Graduate, Awards and Notables
U.S. News Ranks Graduate Program #26 in International Relations
U.S. News ranked Washington University in St. Louis' political science graduate program #26 in the country for their international relations sub-field.
Faculty, Research
Professor Matt Gabel Researches How the Widening Political Rift in the U.S. Impacts Medical Research
Professor Matt Gabel along with John C Morris & Catherine M. Roe have been researching to find why some people were more inclined to participate in medical research than others. Their study finds conservatives are less willing than liberals to participate in research.
Faculty, Graduate, Research
Professor Keith Schnakenberg and PhD Candidate Jordan McAllister Publisehd on IO Website
Professor Keith Schnakenberg and PhD Candidate Jordan McAllister's article, "Designing the Optimal Climate Agreement with Variability in Commitments," is online on the IO website.
Table of Contents
Letter from the Chair
It is my pleasure to share some news from the Department with you. Last year was challenging, but it was also an exceptionally successful year for the Department. We rose in the national rankings to the 12th place, which is the highest that the department has ever been and makes us the highest ranked department in Arts & Sciences at WashU.
In addition, our faculty recruitment effort last year was unprecedented in many ways: we made six offers, including two at the full professor level and two at the associate level. Four of the recruits were women, three were under-represented minorities (all of whom were also women). And we landed three excellent new colleagues. Plus, we did all of this in the middle of a pandemic--at a time when we expected not to be able to recruit at all! As a department, we are clearly on an upward trajectory – the direction in which I hope we can continue.
This fall, we are also pursuing some exciting hiring opportunities, which I’ll hope to share soon.
I am so happy to welcome our four newest faculty to the Department: Zack Bowersox, Dan Butler, Lucia Motolinia, and Anna Wilke. We also welcome Daniel Gibbs and Andrew Stone as our new post-docs. We are fortunate to have such talented colleagues join our ranks!
We also celebrate the promotion of two of our colleagues. Congratulations to Andrew Reeves on his promotion to full professor and to Keith Schnackenberg on his promotion to associate professor with tenure!
Our department has grown in other ways! In May, Prof. Carly Wayne and family welcomed Ava May Mansfeld. In August, Prof. Will Nomikos and family welcomed Ares Jonah Resnick Nomikos.
We also received the disappointing news that Michael Bechtel will be leaving the department at the end of 2021 to accept a position as a full professor offer from the University of Cologne. We will miss having Michael as our colleague and wish him all the best in his new endeavor.
Before closing, I would like to thank professor Andrew Reeves and Jessica Droege for compiling another exciting edition of the Newsletter. One thing that the Department has always been proud of is our community – the ties we build among our colleagues and students. I hope this Newsletter helps us maintain these ties and encourage you to reach out and let us know how you are doing.
Yours Sincerely,
Margit Tavits
William Taussig Professor
Chair, Department of Political Science
Frank Lovett
Letter from the Director of Undergraduate Studies
The undergraduate major in Political Science continues to be one of the strongest and most popular programs at Washington University. Our program draws many of the most talented students at Washington University, and our graduates commonly go on to elite professional and graduate schools or successful careers in an extraordinarily wide range of public and private sector jobs. This past spring, we were delighted to award degrees to 74 Political Science majors, 25 Political Science minors, and 11 Environmental Policy majors. Our undergraduates are not merely taught what we know about politics, they are trained in the theoretical and methodological tools used to build social science knowledge. In an effort to build on our strengths, we recently approved and are implementing a number of improvements to our program. So as to encourage students to begin their methodological training earlier, we have introduced a new course, PolSci 263: Data Science for Politics. First offered this fall, the class has been a terrific success, drawing nearly sixty students. To encourage stronger relationships with faculty, we have also introduced a new capstone requirement for all majors which will go into effect for students who declare a major in Political science this year. Our focus how now moved to enhancing the thesis honors program. This past spring, sixteen of our most talented juniors declared the intention of writing an honors thesis – the largest group of honors students we have had in many years. To make the program more inclusive and rewarding, we have already increased the flexibility of the requirements, and we also hope to improve both training and advising moving forward with the program.
David Carter
Letter from the Director of Graduate Studies
It has been an exciting Fall for the graduate program. We welcomed our second-year cohort to campus for the first time, as we were all remote last year. Additionally, we added a great cohort of first-year students to our ranks, who are now more than halfway through their first semester in the program. It is fantastic to all be back on the Danforth Campus and back in Seigle Hall together this academic year after a year and a half of being mostly remote. In the last year, our graduate students have had a banner year in publishing papers in some of the best journals in political science. Zoe Ang published a paper in the American Journal of Political Science, Jordan McAllister published an article in International Organization with Prof. Keith Schnakenberg, Luwei Ying published a paper in the American Political Science Review with Prof. David Carter and Scott Abramson (Rochester), Jordan McAllister and Afiq bin Oslan published a paper in Electoral Studies, and Ben Noble published a paper in Political Science Research and Methods, to name a few. Our job market candidates have also been having a remarkable year. While it is still early in terms of the market, our job market candidates have already been invited to a number of campus interviews at great institutions, such as Princeton University, New York University, UCLA, the University of Rochester, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A & M University, Villanova University, and the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana. These are outstanding achievements in a difficult job market.
Featured News
Undergraduate
Undergraduate Student Emma Lembke Launches a Movement to Help Teens Overwhelmed by Social Media
First-year student and Political Science major, Emma Lembke founded Log Off, a movement founded by teens for who want a safer and healthier relationship with social media.
Faculty, Research
It’s Not Just What You Say But How You Say It
Professor Christopher Lucas addresses long-standing questions in political science using new computational methods and previously untapped datasets – including the sound of political speech.
New Colleagues
We are pleased to welcome these new faculty, lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows to the Department of Political Science.
Read more
PhD Candidates on the Job Market
Read more
Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Sunita Parikh
Get to know Dr. Sunita Parikh
Read more
Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Guillermo Rosas
Get to know Dr. Guillermo Rosas
Read more
Awards & Grants
Jeremy Siow, PhD Candidate
CRE2 Grant Awarded a CRE2 Grant from the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity for his project, "Language of Instruction & Ethnic Prejudice in Malaysia."
Lucia Motolinia, Assistant Professor
Repal Best Graduate Paper Award Won the Best Graduate Paper Award with Repal for her paper, "Cultivating a Personal Vote Can Increase Legislative Cohesion: Evidence from Clientelistic Parties in Mexico."
Read the StoryBryant Moy, PhD Candidate
PolMeth Best Graduate Poster Award Won the Society for Political Methodology (SPM) Poster Award for his work, "Responsiveness in a Fragmented Local Politics."
Read the StoryChristopher Lucas, Assistant Professor
Methodology, Measurement, & Statistics Program Grant Awarded a grant through the Methodology, Measurement, & Statistics Program for his project, "Computational Methods for Speech Analysis," with his collaborator Dean Knox (UPenn).
Lucia Motolinia, Assistant Professor
Leon Weaver Award Awarded American Political Science Association's Leon Weaver Award for the best paper. Her paper is titled, "Geographically-Targeted Spending in Mixed-Member Majoritarian Electoral Systems."
Jim Gibson, Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government
Harold Lasswell Award Awarded the International Society for Political Psychology's Harold Lasswell Award for Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Political Psychology.
Andrew Reeves, Professor
David Hadas Teaching Award Selected as this year’s recipient of the David Hadas Teaching Award, which was established by Pamela W. Hadas "to honor and publicly recognize an outstanding tenured faculty member in Arts & Sciences who demonstrates commitment and excellence in teaching first-year undergraduate students.”
Read the StoryTed Enamorado, Assistant Professor
Statistical Software Award Awarded Political Methodology's Statistical Software Award for his software, fastLink, with his colleagues Kosuke Imai (Harvard) and Ben Fifield (ACLU Legal Analytics Group).
Gary Miller, Professor Emeritus
Herbert A. Simon Book Award Awarded Cambridge University Press' Herbert A. Simon Book Award for his book, Above Politics: Bureaucratic Discretion and Credible Commitment.
Read the Story
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