News & Events

In November, eight Politics students working with Carah Ong Whaley on a campus-wide Hoos Vote initiative through the Center for Politics internship program participated in the Students Learn Students Vote National Summit. Hosted by the University of...
The book News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement by Department Chair Jennifer Lawless and co-author Danny Hayes, has won the prestigious Goldsmith Award academic book prize from the Harvard Shorenstein Center....
  The University of Virginia’s Department of Politics on Thursday hosted its second annual Oratory Competition inside the Dome Room of the historic Rotunda. https://news.virginia.edu/content/students-remedy-save-america-speech-earns...
Cary and Lawless are the guest speakers for a presentation – titled “She Said, She Said: A UVA Teaching Strategy for Bridging the Politically Polarized Divide” – that begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, at Pavilion VII on the Lawn....
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned for a second time in a week on July 21, 2022. Read Politics professor Carol Mershon's take and explanation of the situation. https://theconversation.com/italy-heading-to-snap-election-as-...
Would We Have Paid Parental Leave if More Moms Were in Congress? Read UVa politics professor Jen Lawless' contribution to the New York Times opinion piece. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/03/opinion/female-candidates.html...
The focus and criticism on Hunt's background is, unfortunately, to be expected for any candidate, Lawless says; that goes for male and female candidates. But Hunt has smartly used this as a way to connect to young voters. https://...
Black Lives Matter Sign
Postdoctoral Fellow (now assistant professor at University of Louisville) Siddhant Issar receives the APSA Leo Strauss Award for Best Dissertation in Political Philosophy. Congratulations Sid!    ...
Justice Scale
What are the major causes of the racial wealth gaps in US states? Read politics Professor Herman Mark Schwartz's contribution to WalletHub's recent study on State Economies with the Most Racial Equality. https://wallethub.com/edu/...
Human Dignity and Political Criticism cover
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/human-dignity-and-political-criticism/5296C8B1F1E8C45DE46B96CE3B6FACE8
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What are the underlying conditions that drive a sharp increase in migration of people from Guatemala to the United States? Climate change maybe be part of the answer.   https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2022...
Layla Picard
Layla Picard received the award from the Eastern Sociological Society's 2022 for her MA thesis titled "Sister Citizen Soldier: How Military Feminists Contest Exclusion through Counterdiscourse". ...
Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings
Politics professor Jen Lawless weighs in on highly political questions in supreme court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. https://www.cbs19news.com/story/46134103/why-is-ketanji-...
Todd Sechser
Rewatch professor Tood Sechser's conversation with Michael Krepon, author of "Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace". https://www.vabook.org/2022/03/19/winning-and-losing-the-nuclear-peace-a-conversation-with-michael-krepon/...
Todd Sechser
Professor Todd Sechser, author of Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy (Cambridge University Press,2017), has been sharing his expertise with local and national news outlets, CNN, Charlottesville CBS19, and Charlottesville...
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Understanding how race intersects with public policy has never been more important. This requires examining the racial foundations of public policy in the United States—the focus of an inaugural series convened by the Center for Racial Justice...
Siddhant Issar
Postdoctoral Fellow, Siddhant Issar, will begin a tenure track position in political theory at the University of Louisville's Department of Political Science - starting in the fall of 2022! Congratulations Sid!...
Soldier figurine on a map
University of Virginia experts assess Russia's assault on European stability in this new rolling blog. https://millercenter.org/russias-invasion-ukraine
Professor John Owen
Read Professor John Owen's take on the the current standoff between Russia and Ukraine. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/01/28/long-ago-invasion-that-offer-clues-vladimir-putins-thinking-ukraine/ ...
United States Capitol
‘If ever there was a time, the time is now,’ said Liz Gledhill, former chair of the Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus. ‘The momentum and infrastructure are already there.’ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/31/...
David S. Law
Friday, February 11, 3:15 - 5:00 pm EST Free and Open to the Public - Reception to Follow at Monroe 124. Click here for more. Livestream also available; register at https://bit.ly/Law2-11 ...
American Enterprise Institute logo
Web Discussion hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and UVA Democracy Initiative with Prof. Gerard Alexander and Instructor Mary Kate Cary as moderators “Conservatives and American Democracy” Thursday Feb 3, 11 am. https://www....
“What Happened to the Vital Center?” book cover
Webinar discussion of Sid Milkis’ new book, “What Happened to the Vital Center?” even is on Wednesday Feb 2, 3-4 Hosted by the Miller Center. https://millercenter.org/news-events/events/what-happened-vital-center  ...
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UVA Ph.D. and Visiting Fellow at Harvard, Verlain Lewis, examines American political party ideologies, past and present in his book, “Ideas of Power.” https://bit.ly/3FQRtaq ...
Prof. Milkis and UVA PhD Nicholas Jacobs
Prof. Sid Milkis collaborated with UVA Ph.D. Nicholas Jacobs on the new book "What Happened to the Vital Center?"  "In What Happened to the Vital Center?, Nicholas Jacobs and Sidney Milkis tackle a foundational question...
Brantly Womack headshot
Professor Emeritus Brantly Womack has been named the Boeing Visiting Faculty Chair of International Relations at Schwarzman College in Beijing for acaedmic year 2022-2023. Schwarzman College is a fully-funded international graduate program...
Professor Chris Carter
The faculty, staff, and students of the Politics Department are very excited to welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Christopher Carter! Dr. Carter's book project examines the emergence as well as the political and social effects of...
 "The Guise of Exceptionalism: Unmasking the National Narratives of Haiti and the United States" book cover
Alex Dupuy (Professor of Sociology at Wesleyan University) and Anuja Bose (Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota) each reviews of Robert Fatton's new book https://brill.com/view/journals/...
Professor Rita Koganzon
Prof. Rita Koganzon receives the “Excellence in Civic Education Award” given to one K-12 teacher and one professor for extraordinary teaching and student engagement. This is in recognition of Koganzon's work of...
Political Legitimacy, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change
Ross Mittiga - PhD graduate and now assistant professor at the Institute of Political Science of the Catholic University of Chile - asks in a recent publication in the American Political Science Review if authoritarian power is ever legitimate...
Bold Dominion podcast
Hear episode 48 of the Bold Dominion podcast - a state politics podcast - where third-year undergraduate student Katherine Hansen speaks with Batten professors Andrew S Pennock and Justin H Kirkland about the powers of the...
General Faculty member, Professor Kirill Zhirkov, has authored or co-authored three recent articles on immigration. Read them in the links below.  Perceptions of Stereotypically Immigratn Groups as Darker-skinned and Politics of...
Read Professor Lawless and Freedman's column in The Charlottesville Daily Progress ...
Postdoctoral researcher Rachel K. Alexander examines the political importance of cemeteries in her article "Why Cemeteries Matter." ...
Professor Fatton has been inverviewed by both the New York Times and the Miami Herald about current political conditions and foreign interventions. 
Clifton McCleskey
It is with great sadness we share the passing of Professor Emeritus Clifton McCleskey. The Department's condolences are sent to Clifton's wife, Jo and his two sons. Clifton was chair of the Department from 1987-1992 and retired as...
Congratualations to Justin Kirkland and coauthor Jeff Harden of Notre Dame, for winning the Best Journal Article Award from the State Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). Their article "Does Tranparency...
Congratulations to Professor Anne Meng for winning the 2021 Best Article Award, African Politics Conference Group Section of the American Political Science Association! The award is for the article "Winning the Game of Thrones: Leadership...
Balfour Morrison Word Work
"To Manipulate American English": Toni Morrison's Word Work as a Practice of Freedom, the new article by Professor Lawrie Balfour, has been published in the new issue of American Quarterly. Read it here. ...
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The University of Virginia is sponsoring a special series of four lectures by Professor Emeritus Brantly Womack that will present a comprehensive analysis of China’s once and future centrality in East Asia. The lectures will cover: 1. The...
Kirill Zhirkov
Assistant proffesor Kirill Zhirkov receives best-dissertation award for his for his work "Immigration in Our Heads: The Political Relevance of Mental Schemas about Immigrants" from the International Society of Political Psychology....
Afghan refugees
Politics professor David Leblang and co-author Margaret Peters discuss how resettling Afghan refugees can help not only their new host countries but also the people who remain in Afghanistan in a recent op-ed in the...
Soldiers in Afghanistan
Professors Dale Copeland, Todd Sechser, and John Owen - faculty members in the University of Virginia’s Democratic Statecraft Lab - weigh in on the long-term effects of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after its 20...
Liberal States, Authoritarian Families book cover
Wall Street Journal writer Elliot Kaufman's review of Rita Koganzon’s book Liberal States, Authoritarian Families. Reading Locke and Rousseau to determine how best to ensure that our children think for themselves—and not...
Todd Sechser headshot
On June 25, Professor Todd Sechser gave an invited presentation at the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy at Texas A&M's Bush School. Dr. Sechser presented his paper “Expectations, Surprise, and Public Support for War,” co-...
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Doctoral student Chris Dictus has won the prestigious Dwight D. Eisenhower/Clifford Roberts Graduate Fellowship, awarded by the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. This competitive fellowship provides a $10,000 stipend to pursue research on...
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Assistant Professor Rachel Augustine Potter has a new post in the Brookings Institution's blog Series on Regulatory Process and Perspective, in which she considers the pros and cons of the White House's role in reviewing executive agency...
Robert Fatton headshot
Robert Fatton, Jr., the Julia A. Cooper Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs, and expert on the politics of (and native of) Haiti, has been extensively quoted by news outlets covering recent events in that country, including ...
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Associate Professor Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner was featured on a recent episode of the podcast Governance Uncovered, where she discussed citizenship practices and accountability in local governance in rural India, exploring both top-down and bottom-up...
The journal Comparative Political Studies has published a new article on the effects of border fortifications by Dr. Justin Schon, post-doctoral research associate at the Democracy Initiative's Statecraft Lab, and Politics Professor David...
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Associate Professor Justin Kirkland's recent article in AJPS, "Does Transparency Inhibit Political Compromise," has been named a co-winner of the APSA State Politics Section's Best Journal Article Award. The article, coauthored...
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Assistant Professor Anne Meng appeared on the Scope Conditions Podcast last month to discuss her book, Constraining Dictatorship, and the novel arguments she makes in the book about how autocratic regimes interact with constraining institutions. The...
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Postdoctoral Fellow Jan Vogler, who will take up an assistant professorship in Germany next semester, has received multiple recognitions for his dissertation on variation in public bureaucracies. Earlier this month, Vogler received an honorable...
Liberal States, Authoritarian Families: Childhood and Education in Early Modern Thought
Oxford University Press has released a new book by Assistant Professor Rita Koganzon, who serves as Associate Director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy and a Lecturer in the Department of Politics. Dr. Koganzon's book, Liberal...
Kate Jackson headshot
Dr. Kate Jackson, currently the DeOlazarra Fellow at the Program in Political Philosophy, Policy & Law, has accepted a tenure-track post at the University of Dayton's Law School. A former litagator, Dr. Jackson earned her Ph.D. with...
Robert Fatton headshot
Professsor Robert Fatton, Jr.'s latest book, The Guise of Exceptionalism: Unmasking the National Narratives of Haiti and the United States, was published in April by Rutgers University Press. Dr. Fatton's book compares the historical origins...
Craig Volden headshot
Professor Craig Volden has won the annual award for best paper from State Politics and Policy Quarterly, an organized section of the American Political Science Association. The award, which Volden received for his coauthored paper "Legislative...
Associate Professor Dan Gingerich and Postdoc Jan Vogler (who will take up an assistant professorship at the University of Konstanz in the fall) wrote a piece for the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog based on their recently published article...
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The Miller Center's Compton Visiting Professor Syaru Shirley Lin has a new article in China Leadership Monitor about four urgent structural challenges for Taiwan's government and allies. Dr. Lin argues that these challenges--namely,...
Bridget C.E. Dooling & Rachel A. Potter cover
Assistant Professor Rachel Augustine Potter has been selected to serve as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. Alongside Bridget C.E. Dooling, Research Professor at the George Washington University Regulatory Studies...
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A new article in Perspectives on Politics by Associate Professor David Waldner and University of Florida's Benjamin Smith is available online now. In "Survivorship Bias in Comparative Politics: Endogenous Sovereignty and the Resource Curse...
The University's annual Double Hoo Awards support original research projects conducted by undergraduate students paired with grad student mentors. This year's Double Hoo recipients include five teams with Politics students. Second-year...
Watch the Politics Department 2021 graduation video!
David Waldner headshot
Associate Professor David Waldner's new book, coauthored with University of Florida's Benjamin Smith, was published last month by Cambridge University Press. The book, Rethinking the Resource Curse, "documents the diversity and...
The Department is very excited to have jumped nine points in the latest US News and World Report rankings! We are now ranked #28 for Political Science graduate programs and #16 in Political Theory. According to US News and World Report, graduate...
Albert Rivero headshot
The faculty, staff, and students of the Politics Department are very excited to welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Albert Rivero! Dr. Rivero studies judicial politics in the United States, with particular interests in the lower federal courts...
Professor Leonard Schoppa was quoted in Stephanie Murray's recent piece in The Atlantic about the economic perils of low fertility rates. The article considers a number of approaches other countries have used to make parenthood less financially...
Department Chair Dr. Jen Lawless was featured on a recent episode of the You Don't Have to Yell podcast, where she explained "how women are just as likely as men to win an election, far less likely to be encouraged to run, and the changes...
Pearl Risberg, a 2018 alumna of the Department's Distinguished Majors Program, has been accepted to and will attend the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, starting in the fall. Since taking her B.A. in 2018, Ms. Risberg has held a...
Todd Sechser headshot
Professor Todd Sechser appeared on Charlottesville's NewsRadio WINA recently, where he spoke with host Les Sinclair about the Iran nuclear deal and its future under the Biden administration. Listen here: https://wina.com/podcasts/can-a-new-iran-...
Life After Politics flier
Life After Politics is our annual event featuring alumni mentors, panel participants, and networking opportunities. Presented by the Politics Alumni Board and The Career Center, this half-day interactive session reveals career paths and insider...
Boston University's Center for the Study of Asia will host a launch event for the new book edited by UVA Professor John Echeverri-Gent and UC-Irvine's Kamal Sadiq, Interpreting Politics: Situated Knowledge, India, and the Rudolph Legacy...
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Professor David Leblang and Duke political scientist Dr. Sarah Bermeo have co-authored a piece for the Brookings Institution's Future Development blog on the effects of climate change and violence on migration to the US from Honduras. The...
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Assistant Professor Anne Meng was the featured guest on a recent episode of the University of Washington's Political Economy Forum Podcast. This episode, "How Dictators (ab)use Democratic Institutions," referenced Dr. Meng's book,...
Lecturer Lynn Uzzell's article, "Madison’s Five Lessons for Overcoming Polarization," was recently published by the website Real Clear Public Affairs as part of that publication's "1776 Series." Dr. Uzzell is an...
Jennifer Lawless headshot
Department Chair Professor Jen Lawless spoke to the Christian Science Monitor for an article, out yesterday, on recent sexual harassment allegations against New York governor Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic Party's struggle to enforce clear...
Jennifer Lawless headshot
Department Chair Dr. Jen Lawless was quoted in last week's news coverage of the Biden administration's struggle to confirm a number of key nominees. Dr. Lawless raised concerns about the fact that nominees of color and female nominees seem...
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Professor David Leblang, who heads the Batten School's Global Policy Center, spoke to Newsweek this week about the confirmation prospects of President Biden's first nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget. The nominee, Neera...
A graduate of the Department's Master's program, Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink is now finishing a three-year term as US ambassador to Vietnam. Next week Ambassador Kritenbrink will appear live from Hanoi to discuss the future of US-Vietnam...
Ashley Mehra, who graduated from the Department's undergrad honors program in 2018, has a chapter in the new edited volume, Structures of Protection? Rethinking Refugee Shelter. Ms. Mehra's chapter, "Redignifying Refugees: A Critical...
Interpreting Politics: Situated Knowledge, India, and the Rudolph Legacy
The UChicago Center in Delhi, American Institute of Indian Studies, and Oxford University Press will host an international (virtual) launch event for the new book edited by UVA Professor John Echeverri-Gent and UC-Irvine's Kamal Sadiq,...
Hsuan-Yu Lin headshot
Ph.D. candidate Hsuan-Yu Shane Lin's article, "COVID-19 and American Attitudes toward U.S.-China Disputes," was published yesterday in the Journal of Chinese Political Science. Noting that International Relations scholars have given...
Politics Department Chair Jennifer Lawless, an expert on women in electoral politics, has been sought out by journalists covering the incoming Biden administration this past week. In an article on Vice President Kamala Harris published in The...
Anne Meng
Assistant Professor Anne Meng appeared on a recent episode of the Scholars' Circle podcast to discuss the January 6 insurrection in Washington, and Donald Trump's legacy. You can find the full episode here: https://scholarscircle.org/...
Carol Mershon headshot
Professor Carol Mershon and her coauthor, Olga Shvetsova, presented their recent book, Formal Modeling in Social Science (University of Michigan Press, 2019), at an "Authors Meet Critics" roundtable during this month's annual...
Kevin Duong headshot
American Political Science Review, the flagship journal of the American Political Science Association, has published a powerful new article by Assistant Professor Kevin Duong. Dr. Duong's essay, "Universal Suffrage as Decolonization,"...
UVA's Miller Center and the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai hosted a "hybrid" online event featuring several scholars from the Miller Center and their colleagues from Fudan. The event, which focused on the...
David Leblang headshot
Prof. David Leblang has coauthored a new article, with Dr. Alexandra O. Zeitz of Concordia University, in International Studies Quarterly, the flagship journal of the International Studies Association. Their article, "Migrants as Engines of...
Paul Freedman headshot
Associate Professor Paul Freedman, who serves as a member of the UVA Committee on Sustainability and the UVA Sustainable Food Collaborative, will helm an expert panel discussion on "Food and Justice in Virginia" on January 27. The panel...
Bob Kubinec headshot
Dr. Robert Kubinec, a UVA Ph.D. now teaching at NYU-Abu Dhabi, has an article coauthored with Professor John Owen in this month's issue of Political Analysis. Their article, "When Groups Fall Apart: Identifying Transnational Polarization...
Grad student Kimberly Ganczak successfully defended her dissertation on December 17. Her dissertation, "Broadening the Political Methodologist's Toolkit: A Population Dynamics Model of Political Science Time Series Data," was overseen...
Kevin Duong headshot
Assistant Professor Kevin Duong has an article in the latest issue of French Politics, "The Left and Henri Bergson." The article examines philosopher Bergson's polarizing role in twentieth-century French political theory, and the...
Modern Autocracies
Assistant Professor Anne Meng has an article in last month's issue of Journal of Conflict Resolution, a leading journal in conflict and security studies. Dr. Meng's article, "Winning the Game of Thrones: Leadership Succession in Modern...
Post-doctoral fellow Jan Vogler recently had an article conditionally accepted for publication by European Union Politics, the leading quantitatively-oriented journal in European Union studies. Dr. Vogler coauthored his article, “Does EU...
Commonwealth Professor of Politics and Department Chair Jennifer Lawless and Adjunct Professor and Miller Center Fellow Mary Cate Cary published an op-ed in USA Today on their experience co-teaching a course on the 2020 presidential election. Dr....
Professor Lawrie Balfour and five other scholars have contributed to a symposium, published in the latest issue of Perspectives on Politics, on Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum’s recent book A Lot of People Are Saying: The New...
Comparative Public Budgeting: Global Perspectives on Taxing and Spending book cover
Professor James Savage has a new book on the way from Cambridge University Press. This second edition of Comparative Public Budgeting: Global Perspectives on Taxing and Spending, which Savage co-authored with Dr. George Guess, is an update of Guess...
Lawrie Balfour headshot
Professor Lawrie Balfour was awarded a year-long fellowship in 2020 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Dr. Balfour's project, Imagining Freedom: Toni Morrison and the Work of Words, contests the traditional study of freedom in...
James Savage headshot
Professor James D. Savage has been awarded his second Fulbright Research Fellowship, which will take him to the National University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary in the coming year. Dr. Savage's research and teaching focus on...
Associate Professor Murad Idris recently received the award for Best Book in Interdisciplinary Studies from the International Studies Association for his book War for Peace: Genealogies of a Violent Ideal in Western and Islamic Thought. The award...
Ph.D. student Richard Burke and Associate Professor Justin Kirkland, with Dr. Jonathan Slapin of the University of Zurich, had their article "Party Competition, Personal Votes, and Strategic Disloyalty in the U.S. States" published in...
The Department of Politics is pleased to announce its first grant recipient of the new Undergraduate Thesis Research Grant, Ms. Nicole Huffman. Nicole is a fourth year student in the Distinguished Majors Program and has been awarded $1,000...
Professor James Savage wrote a short article, published on the website of the Iranian Council for Defending the Truth, about the major foreign policy challenges the incoming Biden administration is likely to face, and how Biden's approach to...
Moderated by Politics Professor Paul Freedman. The discussion panel includes Politics Alumni Board Member and Instructor Mary Kate Cary. This event is being hosted by The Miller Center, UVA Lifetime Learning and the Democracy Initiative....
Associate Professor Murad Idris received the 2020 David Easton Award and the 2020 Best Paper Award, Foundations of Political Theory Section, from the American Political Science Association (APSA). Professor Idris was awarded the David Easton Award...
In “Buying Power: Electoral Strategy Before the Secret Vote,” Daniel W. Gingerich, Associate Professor of Politics, Co-Director of the Corruption Laboratory for Ethics, Accountability, and the Rule of Law (CLEAR Lab), and Director of the...
The updated, no-contact, process for declaring a major is available here: https://politics.as.dev.artsci.virginia.edu/how-to-declare-politics-major. ...
Welcome from the Chair Welcome to the Department of Politics! If you’re interested in any combination of domestic or global politics, governing systems, public opinion, political economy, campaigns and elections, foreign affairs, political...
The French Paradox: Prosperity and Torment Lecture Series with Chantal Delsol scheduled on March 18th, 19th and 20th (see details below) have been canceled and postponed until Fall 2020 semester....
Philip Potter directs the National Security Policy Center, which fosters a dialogue between students and faculty members on Grounds and decision-makers in Washington. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications) [UVA TODAY] November 07,...
What can you do with a degree in Politics? What is life like after graduation? Life After Politics is our annual event featuring alumni mentors, panel participants, and networking opportunities. Presented by the Department of Politics and The...
Friday, October 25, 2019 11:30am to 3:00pm Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium, Recruiting Room, 1815 Stadium Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA Engage with alumni from the Department of Politics who will speak on a panel and be...
Starting this semester, top students in the Department of Politics again will have the opportunity to join the Pi Sigma Alpha honor society. Membership in Pi Sigma Alpha is an acknowledgment of outstanding academic performance in the...
The faculty and staff of the Department of Politics celebrated Professor Stephen White's distinguished career on Friday, January 26. Speakers included John Owen—Chair, Paul Freedman—Associate Chair, and Professor White's peers in...
Professor Brantly Womack is on a multi-country visit in Asia. His first stop was in Taiwan where he participated in a workshop at the Institute of Political Science of Taiwan's Academia Sinica with Department of Politics adjuncts Harry...
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Justin Kirkland is the new Associate Professor of Politics. He comes to the University of Virginia from the University of Houston where he was Associate Professor of Political Science. He was recently honored with the 2018 Emerging Scholar Award,...
Professor Shiran Victoria Shen joins the Department of Politics after receiving her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her recent scholarly honors include the 2017 Paul A. Sabatier Award from the American Political Science Association for the...
FYRE – First Year Research Experience is a program offered to rising 2nd years. The program aims to increase the number of underrepresented students pursuing graduate education and careers in the humanities and social sciences. This...
A new set of scholars to receive the 2018 Quandt Awards has been chosen to pursue research overseas. The Quandt International Research Fund was started by the Department of Politics in honor of William Quandt, a distinguished faculty member and...
Presentation Title Epistemic Bubbles and Authoritarian Politics Organization Philosophy, University of Michigan Start Date 04-20-2018 Start Time 10:00 End Time 12:00 Location Gibson 296 Details Abstract:...
Students and professors will also travel to Chicago for the 76th Annual MPSA Conference, April 5-8, 2018. More info  Participants this year include: Checks, Balances, and Federalism Connor Maxwell Ewing The Judicial Construction of...
The Department of Politics will have a wide range of speakers at this year’s ISA Conference in San Francisco. The conference will be tagged on social media as #ISA2018. It will run from April 4–7, 2018. The New Financial...
The annual Huskey Graduate Research Exhibition was held Tuesday, March 20th 2018 in Newcomb Hall. Grad participants from the Department of Politics included: Simonas Cepenas—Partisan Politics and Taxation: Why Some Democracies...
Please join our graduate scholars presenting at the 2018 Huskey 2018 Graduate Research Exhibition. This year’s political scientists: 1:30 Simonas Cepenas Partisan Politics and Taxation: Why Some Democracies are More Heavily Taxed...
Presentation Title Distinguished Majors Program Info Session Start Date 03-12-2018 Start Time 5:00 End Time 7:00 Location Nau 342 Details Government and Foreign Affairs Majors, If you will be graduating next year...
Starting Fall 2018, Kenny Lowande will be an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy (by Courtesy) at the University of Michigan. Kenny earned his Ph.D. from UVA in 2016, and has been a postdoctoral fellow at Washington...
Abigail Post joins Anderson University in Indiana as an Assistant Professor of International Relations/National Security in the Department of History & Political Science. Her dissertation was title The Language of Signaling: National...
The details on this event will be forthcoming. January 19 workshop Start Date 01-19-2018 Start Time 12:00 End Time 1:30
The Race, Ethnicity and Gender Working Group (REG) in the Department of Politics brings together faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students to advance research, mentorship and teaching on political questions that address race, ethnicity...
It would be so nice to sum up Roger Herbert's path in a few simple words, but that is not going to happen. He graduated with his Ph.D. from the Department of Politics in 2016. But he was a Captain in the U.S. Navy as a SEAL before that, and a...
Carah Ong Whaley discusses the implications of the 2017 election results with Sam Wood, WJBC, the Voice of Central Illinois. Carah Ong Whaley, University of Virginia, 11-08-17 ...
There is a new initiative to bring some transparency to hiring in Political Science: see #PSJMInfo on Twitter.  Following the best examples of internet activism, the Department of Politics at the University joins other leading institutions to...
Brantly Womack is currently enjoying a one-month position as visiting scholar at China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), the university associated with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  He presented a lecture, “Comparing the...
Despite what you may conjure from the headline of this story, it is not about the politics of football—the power players and the trades, the Superbowl and DeflateGate, severe head injuries or insights into quarterbacks in panty hose....
On Tuesday, April 4th Paul Freedman (Politics), Lou Bloomfield (Physics), Stephen Cushman (English),  and Martien Halvorson-Taylor (Religious Studies) each spoke about themselves for fifteen minutes. While in most situations this might...
Winners of the 2017 Quandt Fund Gregory Lannon, for research in Czechoslovakia and Japan on Russian foreign policy toward Eastern Europe and Japan in the early 1990s.   He will do archival research in both Prague and Hokkaido....
The Huskey Awards are a place for A&S graduate students to share their research to an audience of many fields—presentations may be oral (10-12 minutes) or presented in a postering session (4-5 minutes). The graduate...
Dale Copeland’s new book, Economic Interdependence and War has received the Best Book Award from the International Studies Association. Professor Copeland will receive his award at the 2017 ISA meeting on February 23. This is...
James Savage headshot
James Savage will be teaching and conducting research at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna for Spring 2017 semester. The Fulbright-Diplomatic Academy Visiting Professor of International Studies award, will allow professor Savage to teach...
As part of a nationwide teach-in on Refugees, Migration, and Borders, University of Virginia faculty from the Department of Politics, School of Law Department of History, Department of Religious Studies, and others will conduct a one-day...
We are pleased to announce the fourth annual competition for the Charles H. Koch Jr. Award to provide financial support up to $5000 to help cover the expenses of internships related to foreign affairs of students in the College of Arts and...
Application Information For complete application and submission details go to the Quandt Fund site. Deadline for this year is March 3, 2017. Eligibility Grants of up to $3000 are made to: Politics students, undergraduate...
Brantly Womack is in Hanoi keynoting the Fifth International Conference of Vietnam Studies with a talk on The Vietnam-China-U.S. Triangle—What Next?  The conference is a quadrennial interdisciplinary event sponsored by Vietnam...
It’s no longer true that only Nixon can go to China—Nicholas Winter toured the country at the request of the U.S. State Department to tell the story of the 2016 Presidential Election as part of their Public Affairs Programming...
David Leblang (Department of Politics Chair) and Paul Freedman (Associate Chair) working with Hope McIntyre and Yifeng Song, of the Data Science Institute at the University of Virginia developed the following three...
The 2016 Life After Politics event was held on Friday the 28th—thirteen department alums revealed their secrets to successful careers and the rocky roads they took to get there. The annual event includes a panel of...
Mary Kate Cary, former speechwriter for George H. W. Bush, Jeff Nussbaum, former speechwriter for vice presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, and Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center...
Ezekiel Tan (UVA 2008 – Foreign Affairs and International Economics) has been awarded the 2016 Singapore-China Premier Scholarship (SCPS) to pursue a Master degree in International Relations at Peking University this Fall. The SCPS is...
Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner joins the Woodrow Wilson Department of Political Science beginning in the Fall 2016 semester. She comes to the University from Boston College as an Assistant Professor, and from the Harvard Academy for...
Anne Meng has joined the University of Virginia Department of Politics. She comes to our department from the University of California, Berkeley where she received her Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.A. in Economics. Her research in...
The application process is now closed. Are you thinking about attending graduate school in Political Science? Do you want to learn more? For students from under-represented groups considering getting a Ph.D. in Politics This event is for...
Have you been confused about summer? Have you asked “what is it for?”, “how much does it cost?” , “does it make my GPA look big?”   Get ready to be unconfused. What if you spent your summer tucked into the...
When is a game not a game? When it’s deadly serious.   Todd Sechser, P.I., and Abigail Post, Project and Lab Manager, presented preliminary findings from their laboratory experiments in conflict and violence to an audience including...
Carol Mershon will be presenting her work Advancing Women’s Research in Higher Education at an “all school” lecture at  University of Venda in South Africa on June 15th, 2016. As part of the four day retreat,...
Why do songs about money always repeat money, money, money? But I digress.   Carol Mershon, Geoff Gordon, Jennifer Simons will be presenting at the Institutions in Context workshop at the University of Tampere in ...
Sonal Pandya receives Stanford’s Hoover Fellowship to Continue Research on Supermarket Scanner Data Professor Sonal Pandya has been selected as a W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow for 2016–17. Her...
Lynn Sanders will be on a panel examining the works of Jacob Lawrence, an African American artist from Harlem, primarily known for his work which he termed dynamic cubism. Lynn, a painter as well as political scientist, uses art in her classes...
David Leblang Receives Mentoring Awards David Leblang keeps his door open—and all kinds of opportunities wander in. For him the most pleasant are the ones where he ends up as a mentor. He has developed a reputation as a...
Leonard Schoppa and Skye Fitzgerald screened their new documentary, “The Slow Walk Home” for an enthusiastic crowd of city planners, firefighters, pedestrians, bicyclists, parents, and activists. What kind of film can draw such a diverse...
Carol Mershon headshot
Dr. Carol Mershon has been elected to the Hugh S. and Winifred Cumming Chair in Politics for a three year term beginning Fall of 2016. Her research is outstanding and her leadership and service in the area of...
Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz visited Food Politics during J-Term. Her presentation was a recap of the process, negotiation, and compromise which she and her committee go through in revising the joint USDA/Health and Human Services ...
Stuart Pape (Government ’70, Law ’73) visited Paul Freedman’s Food Politics J-Term class. His presentation, The Politics of Food: Some Perspectives on the History and Character of U.S. Food Safety Regulation , covered all...
We all like to think our work is important—Dale Lawton’s work informs the President of the United States. Some days his intelligence analysis ends up in the book, the daily briefing book of the POTUS. He currently works at the State...
The Department of Politics hosted its first annual Diversity Visit Day on October 15th, 2015. Thirteen outstanding undergraduates and recent graduates from underrepresented groups spent the day at UVA, learning about graduate school in general and...
Fifty students had their eyes opened when eight alums showed up to share what actually happens after you get a degree in politics. Professor Paul Freedman’s Life After Politics panel and speed mentoring activities showcased five post...

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