Fall 2022 Edition
Professor Ted Enamorado published an article, "Jailed While Presumed Innocent: The Demobilizing Effects of Pretrial Incarceration" in the Journal of Politics.
Professor Will Nomikos published an article, "Does UN Peacekeeping Work? A New Perspective" in Political Violence at a Glance
Professor Deniz Aksoy, Professor Margit Tavits, and co-author, Andrew Menger, published a new paper, "The Effect of Curfews on Political Preferences" in the Journal of Conflict Resolution.
It’s a pleasure to bring you another edition of the Newsletter. We are finally fully back in person and the campus as well as the department are full of life. There are many exciting developments to share. Most importantly, I am truly excited to announce that Betsy Sinclair has agreed to serve as chair of the Department of Political Science after my term ends on June 30, 2023. Betsy is a creative and innovative scholar and an accomplished leader; her energy and imagination will serve the department well in our efforts to climb to new heights. I’m looking forward to working with Betsy in the spring semester to hand over the chair role to her before my term ends.
This is an exciting time at WashU! The University unveiled its strategic plan, Here and Next and Arts & Sciences launched its own signature initiatives, two of which are led by our faculty: Betsy Sinclair is co-leading the “Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures” (ITS) and Jacob Montgomery is co-leading the “Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences (TRIADS).”
Our faculty has been in the forefront of innovative research initiatives. David Carter, Matt Gabel, and Andrew Reeves wrote winning proposals for multi-year research collaborations funded by the ITS. Ted Enamorado received a programmatic grant from ITS. Anna Wilke and Margit Tavits received McDonnell Academy seed grants for their collaborative projects with international partners. Christopher Lucas, Jacob Montgomery, and Margit Tavits received a National Science Foundation grant to study the global spread of populism and its effects on democracy.
We are in the middle of a busy recruitment season. The department was approved to search for three positions in the field of international relations and one position in the field of race and ethnic politics. We have enjoyed meeting many talented scholars through this process and hope that some of them will join our faculty in the near future.
In the meantime, our department continues to grow in other ways. On June 14, Taylor Carlson and family welcomed Madeline Jane Carlson and on July 1, Lucia Motolonia and family welcomed Andreas Reiterer-Motolinia into this world. We wish Taylor and Lucia and their families all the very best!
We also congratulate Colleen Skaggs for her promotion to the position of department’s office manager, and Jessica Droege for her promotion to the position of assistant accountant III. We also welcome our newest staff member, Quiana Kelly! And we were sad to say goodbye to Heather Sloan-Randick, the heart and soul of the department for more than 20 years, who left the department for a well-deserved and long overdue promotion in the Dean’s office.
In closing, I would like to thank Jessica Droege for putting together yet another interesting newsletter. The newsletter is Jessica’s creation and with her promotion she leaves big shoes to fill for whoever steps into her role next. I hope you will find this issue a fun and informative read. As always, please stay in touch – we love to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Margit Tavits
Dr. William Taussig Professor
Chair, Department of Political Science
This past May we were delighted to award degrees to 56 Political Science majors, 42 Political Science minors, and 12 Environmental Policy majors. We were especially honored that one of our majors, Helen Webley-Brown, was selected to deliver the student speech for the College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate ceremony. Congratulations Helen, and all of our 2022 majors and minors! Political Science continues to be one of the strongest and most popular programs at Washington University. At the start of the fall semester, we held an Open House event for students interested in Political Science. This event drew so many students we exceeded the room capacity! Our aim is to deliver not only first-rate instruction in Political Science, but also to build community among our faculty, students, and alumni. Our ongoing Events Forum has featured visits from alumni to model career paths from political science, practical how-to sessions on applying to graduate programs, informal coffee breaks with faculty doing exciting new research, and invited guest speakers on current events. Recent highlights include events with alum Connor Raso of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a relaxed chat with faculty member Dr. Clarissa Hayward, and an informal Q&A with Weidenbaum Center Director Andrew Reeves. Stay connected with us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/washupolisci! Here you will find not only event announcements, but also department news, job and internship postings, and academic opportunities. This coming spring our focus will be on strengthening our student advising and thesis mentoring. One project is to compile a comprehensive advising handbook for our faculty: this handbook will not only provide a detailed overview of our program requirements, but also answers to common questions and suggestions for best advising practices. Our goal is to ensure that every student who comes to Political Science receives strong and consistent guidance right through to graduation.
This past year has also been a successful one for our graduate students, with several notable accomplishments to celebrate. We welcomed a first year cohort of ten excellent scholars with diverse research interests across the field who are now halfway through their first year in the program. Among our graduate students' accomplishments in the past year, Jeremy Siow has been awarded the American Political Science Association's Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. This is a highly competitive grant and we are proud of Jeremy's achievement. In addition, Benjamin Noble has won the Dean's award for Graduate Research Excellence. This award recognizes Benjamin's outstanding research and contributions to the study of executive branch politics in the United States. Furthermore, Tony Yang has received two grants for his research. He was awarded the American Political Science Association' Summer Centennial Center Research Grant as well as a research grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. These grants will support Tony's valuable work. We are proud of all of our students and their accomplishments and we look forward to more successes in the future.
Recent research from political scientist Betsy Sinclair reveals the surprising extent of partisan misperceptions.
“The central argument is that the small quirks and differences across languages matter because they direct our attention to certain things and away from others. Those little nudges are then refle...
CRE2 Grant Awarded a seed Grant from the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity for their research on "Migration and Racial Representation in St. Louis County since 1970."
Read the StoryLasting Contribution Award Chancellor Andrew D. Martin, Professor Lee Epstein, & co-author Christina Boyd win APSA's Law & Court Lasting Contribution Award for their 2010 article, "Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging."
Read the StoryCRE2 Best Paper Award Congratulations to PhD candidate Jeremy Siow. His paper, "Bilingual Instruction and Political Discrimination of Ethnic Outgroups: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Malaysia, " won the CRE2 award for Best Graduate Research Paper in Race/Ethnicity.
World & US Top Ranking Scientist Congratulations to Professor James L Gibson on being ranked #35 among the top scientists in the world & ranked #23 in the United States for 2022 by Research.com.
Read the StoryC. Herman Pritchett Book Award Dr. James L Gibson and co-author Michael J. Nelson were awarded the American Political Science Association - Law and Courts' C. Herman Pritchett Book Award for their book, "Judging Inequality: State and Supreme Courts and the Inequality Crisis". The C. Herman Pritchett Book Award is given annually to the best book on law and courts published in the previous year (2021).
Udall Foundation Scholarship Congratulations to undergraduate student, Ranen Miao, for being a 2022 Udall Foundation Scholarship recipient. The Udall Foundation awards scholarships to college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment.
Read the StorySusan Clarke Young Scholar's Award Congratulations to Fall 2022 Ph.D. graduate Bryant Moy for winning the APSA Urban Politics' Susan Clarke Young Scholars' Award.
Read the StoryBest Graduate Research Paper in Race & Ethnicity Graduate student, Jeremy Siow, wins CRE2's Award for Best Graduate Research Paper in Race & Ethnicity. The winning paper was "Bilingual Instruction and Political Discrimination of Ethnic Outgroups: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Malaysia."
Read the StoryUndergraduate Research Award for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, & Equity Undergraduate student Julia Fish wins CRE2's Undergraduate Research Award for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity
Read the StoryLawrence Longley Award Congratulations to Professor Diana O'Brien for winning APSA's Lawrence Longley Award for the best article published in the previous year for the article "Women's Descriptive Representative and Gendered Import Tax Discrimination."
Read the StoryNSF Grant Professors Lucas, Montgomery, & Tavits were awarded an NSF grant to expand their ongoing study of elite communication on social media worldwide.
Summer Centennial Center Research Grant Congratulation to Ph. D. candidate Tony Yang for being awarded the 2022 APSA Summer Centennial Center Research Grant to support his dissertation project, "Normalization: Explaining Public Support for Government Censorship in Authoritarian Regimes."
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Jeremy Siow for being awarded APSA's Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant for his dissertation project.
ITF Funding Congratulations to Professor Ted Enamorado and collaborators for being awarded $10,000 in funding from the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures for their proposal on "Improving Data Integration Techniques."
ITS Seed Grant Congratulations to Professor Christopher Lucas and collaborators on receiving a cluster seed grant of $89,000 from the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures for "Police Body Camera Metadata."
ITS Funding Congratulations to Professors David Cater and Matt Gabel and their collaborators on being awarded $261,500 in funding from the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures for their cluster proposal of "Trust and Public Health."
Global Incubator Seed Grant Congratulations to Professor Margit Tavits for receiving a $25,000 Global Incubator Seed Grant from the McDonnell International Scholars Academy and Office of the Provost for her proposal on "The Behavioral and Attitudinal Effects of Voter ID."
McDonnel Academy Seed Grant Congratulations to Professor Anna Wilke for being awarded a McDonnell Academy seed grant for her research titled, "How does girls' empowerment affect boys? Two field experiments on cross-gender spillover effects of public health campaigns".
Looking to the future of the department we are committed to enriching undergraduate and graduate experiences through student research, scholarly networking, and extracurricular events, including election-related programming, speakers, and other community-building events. These varied learning opportunities are invaluable to our students, and you can help enhance our efforts by making a gift to the Department of Political Science today.
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