News

U.S. News ranked Washington University in St. Louis' political science graduate program #26 in the country for their international relations sub-field.

Congratulations to Prof. Carly Wayne for being awarded the 2020 Walter Isard Award for Best Dissertation in Peace Science by the Peace Science Society (International) for her dissertation “Risk or Retribution: The Micro-foundations of State Responses to Terror.”

Professor Guillermo Rosas has received a grant from the McDonnell Academy to study the politics of Covid-related behaviors in Latin America.

Jacob Montgomery has been selected as the winner of the Society for Political Methodology's Emerging Scholar Award for his contributions to the field of political methodology in scholarship, service, and mentorship.

Congratulations to Jim Gibson for winning the APSA Law and Courts Section’s Lasting Contribution Award.

Congratulations to Professor Bill Lowry for winning the APSA Martha Derthick Best Book Award.

We are pleased to announce that Margit Tavits has been named the William Taussig Professor in Arts & Sciences. This endowed chair is in recognition of Margit’s standing as an outstanding and innovative international scholar. A formal installation ceremony will be held in the 2020-21 academic year.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Ryan Johnson! His paper, "The Role of Lane in Temperate and Tropical Agriculture" has been accepted for publication at Economica.

Taylor Carlson, an Assistant Professor starting in the department Fall of 2019 was awarded a dissertation prize.

Professor Margit Tavits is an incoming field editor for the Journal of Politics. She is in charge of comparative behavior manuscripts.

Congratulations to Professor Michael Bechtel, Kirk Bansak (Stanford), Professor Jens Hainmueller (Stanford), and Professor Yotam Margalit (Tel-Aviv)!  Their article "The Idealogical Basis of the Grexit Debate" has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Politics. 

In a recent study of research productivity that was published by the American Political Science Association, the department of political science at Washington University was ranked #2—just behind Columbia University and just ahead of Stanford University.

Congratulations to Professor Brian Crisp and PhD graduate Betul Demirkaya!  Their paper, "Strategic Entry and Strategic Voting in Majoritarian Systems" has been accepted to be published in The Journal of Politics.

PhD Candidate Patrick Rickert's research from his Third Year Paper is featured in the Vox blog: Lisa Murkowski's Unusual Vote on Kavanaugh, Explained

Professor Jim Gibson is co-recipient of a $150,000 Russell Sage Foundation grant for research examining how judicial decisions contribute to inequalities in such areas as school funding, collective bargaining and state restrictions on citizens’ ability to vote. Michael Nelson of Pennsylvania State University is co-recipient of the grant.

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Michelle Torres!  Her paper, "Estimating Controlled Direct Effects through Marginal Models" has been accepted for publication at PRSM.

Congratulations to Professor David Carter and co-author Paul Poast! Their article in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, "Why Do States Build Walls? Political Economy, Security, and Border Stability," has won the Bruce Russett Award for the Best Paper Published in the Journal in 2017.

Political Science Senior Dan Sicorsky was selected to deliver the Senior Student Speech at the 2018 Convocation. You can hear his remarks at 1:50:20 in the video: https://firstyear.wustl.edu/orientation/bear-beginnings-new-student-fall-orientation/convocation/

Congratulations to Professor Margit Tavits and PhD Candidate Dino Hadzic! Their article, "The Gendered Effects of Violence on Political Engagement," has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Politics.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Erin Rossiter! Her poster, "Measuring Agenda-Setting Power in Political Discourse," was awarded one of the 2019 Society for Political Methodology Poster Awards for the best methods poster presented by a graduate student.

Congratulations to PhD candidates Miguel Pereira and Nicholas Waterbury! Their paper, "Do Voters Discount Political Scandals Over Time?" has been accepted for publication at Political Research Quarterly.

Congratulations to Professor David Carter! His article, "Places to Hide: Terrain, Ethnicity and Civil Conflict," co-written by Andrew Shaver and Austin Wright, has been accepted for publication at Journal for Politics.

Congratulations to Professor Matt Gabel and recent PhD graduate Dalston Ward! Their paper, "Judicial Review Timing and Legislative Posturing: Reconsidering the Moral Hazard Problem," has been accepted to be published in The Journal of Politics.

Congratulations to PhD Candidates, Joan Barcelo and Elena Labzina!  Their paper,  Do Islamic State's Deadly Attacks Disengage, Deter, or Mobilize Supporters?" was accepted at the British Journal of Political Science.

Hong Min Park, Steven S. Smith, and Ryan J. Vander Wielen document the dramatic changes in intercameral resolution that have occurred over recent decades, and examine the various considerations made by the chambers when determining the manner in which the House and Senate pursue conciliation.

Congratulations to Professor Andrew Reeves! The First Year Center presented him with the Delores K. Kennedy Award.

Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Michelle Torres!  She has been selected to receive a 2018 Association of Women Faculty Graduate Student Award.

Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Michelle Torres!  She has been selected to receive a 2018 Association of Women Faculty Graduate Student Award.

2006 Graduate Ryan Vander Wielen (Associate Professor, Temple University) has been chosen to be one of the APSA Congressional Fellows for next season. Congratulations Ryan!

Why has economic inequality risen dramatically over the past few decades even in democracies where individuals could vote for more redistribution? We experimentally study how individuals respond to inequality and find that subjects generally take from richer and give to poorer individuals.

Congratulations to Professor David Carter and his coauthors Rachel Wellhausen (Texas) and Paul Huth (Maryland). Their paper, "International Law, Territorial Disputes, and Foreign Direct Investment" has been accepted at International Studies Quarterly.

Washington University in St Louis Earns Top Ranking for Political Science & Government Program

Professor Andrew Reeves' and co-author Jon Rogowski's, former Washington University professor, paper "The Public Cost of Unilateral Action" is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science. You can view it in advance of publication here: http://www.andrewreeves.org/papers/constraints.pdf

Congratulations to Professor Matt Gabel! His paper, "Political Ideology, Confidence in Science, and Participation in Alzheimer Disease Research Studies," co-authored by Jonathan Gooblar, Catherine M. Roe, Natalie J. Selsor, and John C. Morris, has been published in Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders (2018).

Graduate student, Jeong Hyun Kim, has accepted a tenure track position in political science at Louisiana State University.

Graduate student, Jeong Hyun Kim, has accepted a tenure track position in political science at Louisiana State University.

Congratulations to Professor Keith Schnakenberg! He won the Gordon Tullock Prize from Public Choice for the best paper published by a junior scholar in 2017.

Graduate student, Jonathan Homola, has accepted a tenure track position in the political science department at Rice University.

Congratulations to Professor Deniz Aksoy! Her paper, "Electoral and Partisan Cycles in Counterterrorism," has been accepted to be published in The Journal of Politics.

Recent evidence suggests that historical boundary precedents play a central role in the outbreak, character, and long-term consequences of territorial disputes. The institutional theory of borders holds promise in explaining why leaders find old borders to be attractive as new borders.

Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Miguel Pereira! He won the Marian Irish Award given to the best paper on women and politics presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association.

Congratulations to Professor David Carter!  His paper, "International Trade and Coordination:  Tracing Border Effects," was accepted by the World Politics journal.  This paper was also written with Hein Goemans of Rochester.

Prof. Andrew Reeves article, Donald Trump’s lukewarm response to Puerto Rico was pretty predictable. Here’s why., was published on Washington Post's Monkey Cage Blog.

Congratulations to Professor Jacob Montgomery and PhD candidate Michelle Torres! Their paper, "How conditioning on post-treatment variables can ruin your experiment and what to do about it," was accepted by the American Journal of Political Science. This paper was also written with Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Joan Barceló! His paper, "Are Western Educated Leaders Less Prone to Initiate Militarized Disputes," was accepted at British Journal of Political Science.

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Elena Labzina and former post-doc Olga Chyzh! Their paper, "Bankrolling Repression? Modeling Third-Party Influence on Protests and Repression" was accepted at the American Journal of Political Science.

Congratulations to Professor Sarah Brierley! Her job market paper won the best graduate student paper award from the African Politics Conference Group.

Congratulations to Professor Betsy Sinclair! She has been selected as the winner of the Society for Political Methodology's Emerging Scholar Award.

Ph.D. Candidate Michelle Torres has won the Society for Political Methodology's Poster Award.  Her poster was titled "Measuring Visual Messages: Political Violence and Computer Vision."

In Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Corruption, the authors argue that clarity of responsibility is critical for reducing corruption in democracies. The authors provide a number of empirical tests of this argument, including a cross-national time-series statistical analysis to show that the higher the level of clarity the lower the perceived corruption levels.

Congratulations to Professor Gary Miller and cowriter Andrew Whitford! Their book "Above Politics: Bureaucratic Discretion and Credible Commitment" is the winner of APSA's 2017 Gladys Kammerer Award for US National Public Policy and also will receive the 2017 Charles H. Levine Prize of the International Political Science Association for the best book on comparative administration and public policy.

Congratulations to all four of our job market candidates this year on finding positions!

Nearly 20 Republican-controlled states are considering bills in their respective legislative sessions that send protesters a message: shush. Missouri’s own move to crack down on dissenters is a bill sponsored by state Rep. Nick Marshall, R-Parkville, that would impose unduly harsh penalties on highway protesters.

Professor Clarissa Hayward's article "Responsibility and Ignorance: On Dismantling Structural Injustice" is in the April Issue of Journal of Politics.

Ph.D. candidate Dalston Ward has been selected for Honorable Mention for the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence. Congratulations Dalston!