Faculty

Mershon

Carol Mershon is a Professor in the UVa Department of Politics. Mershon received her Ph.D. in Political Science, with Distinction, from Yale University.

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. My research centers on authoritarian politics, institutions, and elite powersharing. My book, Constraining Dictatorship: From Personalized Rule to Institutionalized Regimes (Cambridge University Press, 2020), examines how executive constraints become established in dictatorships, particularly within constitutions and presidential cabinets.

Leblang

David Leblang is the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics. He is the Randolph Compton Professor of Public Affairs at the University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs where he Director of Policy Studies. He currently serves as Interim Associate Dean for Student Experience and Strategic Initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences. Leblang is a scholar of political economy with research interests in global migration and in the politics of financial markets.

Kruks-Wisner

I am an Associate Professor of Politics & Global Studies at the University of Virginia, where I teach classes on global development, citizen-state relations, local politics, and field methods. Prior to joining UVA, I was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College. I received a Ph.D.

Klosko

George Klosko’s research interests include contemporary political theory, especially issues in analytical and normative theory, and the history of political thought. He teaches courses in both areas: in the history of political thought, focusing on the liberal tradition and Greek political theory, especially Plato; in contemporary, in specific aspects of liberal theory, including problems of political obligation and the theory of John Rawls and Rawls’s critics.

Kirkland

Justin Kirkland is an associate professor of politics and policy at the University of Virginia where he specializes in American Politics. His research interests center on representation, legislative politics, state politics, and public opinion. He has published more than 30 peer reviewed articles in journals like American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and The Journal of Politics.

Lawless

Jennifer L. Lawless is the Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia and the Chair of the Politics Department. She also has affiliations with UVA’s Miller Center and the Batten School. Jen’s research focuses on political ambition, campaigns and elections, and media and politics. She is the author or co-author of eight books, including News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement (with Danny Hayes) and It Still Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (with Richard L. Fox).

Gingerich

Daniel W. Gingerich is Professor of Politics specializing in comparative politics and Director of UVa’s Quantitative Collaborative. He also co-directs the Clear Lab (Corruption Laboratory for Ethics, Accountability, and the Rule of Law), a rotating lab housed within UVa’s Democracy Initiative. Gingerich’s research focuses on the factors that make democracies more or less successful in providing public goods to their citizens.

Furia

Peter Furia is an Associate Professor on the General Faculty and the Global Studies-Security and Justice Program.

His research addresses public opinion and comparative foreign policy and utilizes web and survey data to test claims about group identity and inter-group enmity in international relations. His other interests include mass-elite relations in democracies, the patriotism-cosmopolitanism debate and the history of international political thought.

Freedman

Paul Freedman (Ph.D. University of Michigan) is Director of the Environmental Thought and Practice major at the University of Virginia, and Associate Professor in the Department of Politics. Freedman teaches courses in media and politics, campaigns and elections, research methods, environmental politics, and the politics of food. He is the recipient of the UVA Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award and was the first Edward L. Ayers Advising Fellow.

Department of Politics