Job Market Candidates

Below is an alphabetical list of Ph.D. students and recent graduates currently on the job market. Please feel free to contact them, their advisors, or the Director of Graduate Studies, Rikhil Bhavnani, for additional information.

Saloni Bhogale

Ph.D. Candidate: Comparative Politics | Political Methodology

Email: bhogale@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

Political economy of development, Access to Justice, Legal Institutions, Causal Inference, South Asia

Dissertation Title

Council Size and Access to Justice

References

Rikhil BhavnaniYoshiko Herrera

Veronica Judson

Ph.D. Candidate: American Politics

Email: vjudson@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

Elections, Political Parties, Legislative Redistricting, Congress, Voting Behavior 

Dissertation Title

Disrupting the Electoral Landscape: How Representatives Respond to Change in Election Laws

References

Barry Burden, Eleanor Powell, Katherine Cramer

Allison Myren

Ph.D. Candidate: International Relations

Email: amyren@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

International political economy, politics of finance and financial stability, global financial governance

Dissertation Title

Managing Financial Crises: The Political Economy of Demand for Global Financial Insurance

References

Mark Copelovitch, Jon Pevehouse, Jonathan Renshon

Mingcong Pan

Ph.D. Candidate: Comparative Politics | Political Methodology

Email: mingcong.pan@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

Political Economy, Authoritarian Politics, Elite Politics, Public Opinion, Identity, China

Dissertation Title

“The Trilemma of Authoritarian Rule: Power, Bureaucratic Competence, and Political Survival”

References

Yoshiko Herrera, Nadav Shelef, Paul Castañeda DowerYiqing Xu

Khasan Redjaboev

Ph.D. Candidate: Comparative Politics | International Relations

Email: redjaboev@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

Comparative politics, comparative and historical political economy of development, public administration and governance in authoritarian states, social policy, and redistribution, with an empirical focus on post-communist Eurasia

Dissertation Title

“Communist Colonialism and Development: Building the State Patriarchy in Eurasia, 1870-2020”

References

Rikhil Bhavnani, Yoshiko Herrera, Paul Castañeda Dower, Steven Brooke

Ethan vanderWilden

Ph.D. Candidate: Comparative Politics | Political Methodology

Email: ethan.vanderwilden@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research interests:

Political Behavior, Democratic Backsliding, Nostalgia, Radical Right, Nationalism, Europe, Experiments

Dissertation Title

“Authoritarian Nostalgia and Linked Party Success”

References

Nils Ringe, Laia BalcellsNadav ShelefAdeline Lo

Recent Graduates on the Job Market

Priyadarshi Amar

Ph.D. Candidate: Comparative Politics | Political Methodology

Email: pamar@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

Political Representation, Political Economy of Development, Local Governments, Electoral Quotas, Election Rules, Misinformation, Politics of South Asia

Dissertation Title

Institutions and Political Representation in Local Governments

References

Rikhil Bhavnani (co-chair), Laura Schechter (co-chair), Yoshiko HerreraSimon ChauchardReed Lei, and Priya Mukherjee

Garrett Jones

Ph.D. Candidate: Political Theory | American Politics

Email: gjjones3@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

American Political Thought, The U.S. Presidency, Constitutionalism, Early Modern Political Theory, Public Law

Dissertation Title

“Outside but Not Against the Law: The Implied Powers Presidency”

References

Michelle Schwarze (Chair), Daniel Kapust, Benjamin Kleinerman

Phillip Pinell

Ph.D. Candidate: Political Theory

Email: pinell@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

Iberian and Latin American Political Thought, Memory, Identity, Nationalism, Citizenship Studies, Liberalism/Illiberalism, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

Dissertation Title

“Memory Politics: The Contested Past as an Aid to Liberty”

References

Richard Avramenko, Joshua Dienstag, Daniel Kapust, Michelle Schwarze

Timothy Tennyson

Ph.D. Candidate: Political Theory | American Politics

Email: ttennyson@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

History of Political Thought, Civic Education and Citizenship, Modern and Contemporary Liberalism, Moral and Political Psychology

Dissertation Title

“Fostering Freedom: Judgment in Early-Modern Liberal Educational and Political Thought”

References

Richard Avramenko, Dan Kapust, Michelle Schwarze, Adam Nelson

Thomas Worth

Ph.D. in Political Science (August 2024)

International Relations | American Politics

Email: worth3@stolaf.edu | CV | Website | Google Scholar

Research Interests

Gender and US politics; US foreign policy; feminist security studies; International Relations theory; masculinity and International Relations; the measurement of gender identity

Dissertation Title

A War of Their Own: Masculinity, Femininity, and the Gender Gap in Support for War

References

Andrew Kydd, Aili Tripp, Yoshiko Herrera, Jessica Weeks

Awards

2023-2024 UW–Madison College of Letters and Sciences Capstone Teaching Award

X (Xunchao) Zhang

Ph.D. Candidate: International Relations

Email: x.zhang@wisc.edu | Website | CV

Research Interests

International Security, Public Opinion, Revenge and Revanchism, Leaders, Intergroup Conflict, US foreign policy, Experimental Method

Dissertation Title

“Cycle Of Suffering, Spiral of Revenge: When Revenge Provokes―and When It Deters”

References

Jessica Weeks,  Jonathan Renshon, Andrew Kydd

Xinzhi Zhao

Ph.D. in Political Science (August 2024)

Political Theory | Comparative Politics

Email: xzhao322@wisc.edu | CV | Website

Research Interests

Modern Western political, social, and economic thought; Enlightenment political thought; political and social epistemology; moral psychology; knowledge and democracy; comparative political thought

Dissertation Title

“Another Path to Enlightenment: David Hume and Adam Smith on Philosophers and the Public”

References

Daniel KapustMichelle Schwarze, Howard Schweber, James Messina