Department of Political Science
College of Letters and Science

Student Publications & Awards

Recent Student & Faculty Collaboration

Ph.D. Candidate Ethan vanderWilden and Professor Nadav Shelef's paper published in the American Journal of Political Science

vanderWilden co-authored “Re-evaluating the impact of collective victimhood on conflict attitudes: Results from a natural experiment, a survey experiment, and panel study using Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day".

Ph.D. Student Natalie Jones-Kerwin and Professor Yoshiko Herrera: 2024 Reilly-Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Grant

Natalie Jones-Kerwin and Yoshiko Herrera were awarded the 2024 Reilly-Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Grant for their project “Engaging Wisconsin’s Native Americans in Social Science Research”.

Recent Publications from our Graduate Students

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2025

Ethan vanderWilden and Balcells L., Martínez S. “Discounting extreme positions: party normalization and support for the far right.” Political Science Research and Methods, 1–9. 2025.

Howard Schweber and Rebecca Anderson. “Incitement on the Internet: Rethinking First Amendment Standards in Cyberspace,” in Eric T. Kasper and JoAnne Sweeney eds., Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century  (SUNY Press). 2025.

2024

Barry C. Burden and Jess Esplin. “People Versus Places: The Unrepresentative Nature of Local Election Administration.” In Local Election Administrators in the United States, eds. Paul Gronke et al. Springer. 2024.

Junda Li and D. Woods. “Dangerous depths of bifurcation: the rise of ‘inter-national security narcissists’ and undersea cable (dis) connections.” Asian Security, 1–23. 2024.

Hohyun Yoon. “Getting Angry, Winning Crises: Anger Expressions and Coercive Credibility in International Crises”, American Journal of Political Science. Forthcoming. 2024.

Nadav Shelef and Ethan vanderWilden. “Re-evaluating the impact of collective victimhood on conflict attitudes: Results from a natural experiment, a survey experiment, and panel study using Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day.” American Journal of Political Science 1–19. 2024.

Natalie L. Smith and Susan Webb Yackee. “A New Measure of U.S. Public Agency Policy Discretion.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 2024.

Pinell, Phillip. “Might Makes Rights: A Ciceronian Critique of Pettit’s Theory of Liberty,” POLIS: The Journal for Greek and Roman Political Thought, Forthcoming.

Phillip Pinell. “Does Artificial Intelligence Speak Our Language?: A Gadamerian Assessment of Generative Language Models,” Political Research Quarterly, 0(0). 2024.

Phillip Pinell. “How a People Becomes a People: Memory and Identity in Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia.” American Political Thought. Forthcoming. 2024.

Phillip Pinell. “Tocqueville and Democratic Historical Consciousness,” The European Legacy. Forthcoming. 2024.

Phillip Pinell. “Nostalgia for Empire? José Ortega y Gasset, Memory, and ‘The Spanish Problem’”, The Political Science Reviewer, 48(2). 2024.

Phillip Pinell. “Thinking and Political Considerations: Gnômê in the Stoic Political Philosophy of Epictetus,” The Political Science Reviewer 47, no. 3 (2023), 1-26. 2024.

Valeria Umanets. “Proportional representation and party fragmentation in electoral autocracies.” Democratization: 1-21. 2024.

Valeria Umanets, Marat Iliyasov, Aleksandra Garmazhapova, and Yasin Hakim. “Repurposing Tradition to Justify the War in Ukraine.” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No.878. 2024.

Xinzhi Zhao. “Monopoly and the Dysfunction of the Social Mechanism of Equal Respect: a new reading of Adam Smith’s critique of monopoly.” Adam Smith Review. 2024.

2023

Adeline Lo, Devin Judge-Lord, Kyler Hudson, and Kenneth R. Mayer. “Mapping Literature with Networks: An Application to Redistricting.” Political Analysis. 2023.

Chagai Weiss and Anna Getmansky. “War Time Military Service Can Affect Partisan Preferences.” Comparative Political Studies. 2023.

Chagai Weiss and Anna Getmansky. “Interstate Conflict Can Reduce Support for Incumbents: Evidence from the Israeli Electorate and the Yom Kippur War.”  Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2023.

Dillon Laaker. “Economic Shocks and the Development of Immigration Attitudes.” British Journal of Political Science. 2023.

Hohyun Yoon and Andrew McWard. “Preventing Coups and Seeking Allies: The Demand and Supply of Alliances for Coup-Proofing Regimes.” Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2023.

Marika Olijar and Junda Li. “Persuasion or polarization? LGBTQ+ attitudes among young social media users in Kazakhstan.” Central Asian Survey (2023): 1-22. 2023.

Natalie Jones-Kerwin, Peterson, D.A. “Group Consciousness and the Politics of American Indians.” Political Behavior. 2023.

Ned Littlefield. “Examining the Crime-Conflict Distinction: Victimization and Political System Support in Colombia.” Journal of Politics in Latin America. 1-29. w/ Maria Camila Angulo Amaya. 2023.

Ned Littlefield and Douglas Block. “Identity, Conflict and Discourse: Understanding Military Contestation in Brazil.” Journal of Latin American Studies. 2023.

Ned Littlefield. “After racial democracy? The state’s rhetorical reconstruction of national identity in Brazil (1990-2019).” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. 2023.

Ned Littlefield. “After racial democracy? The state’s rhetorical construction of national identity in Brazil.” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. 2023.

Ned Littlefield and Douglas Block. “Identity, Conflict & Discourse: Understanding Military Contestation in Brazil.” Journal of Latin American Studies. 2023.

Ned Littlefield, Omar O. Dumdum, and Oliver Lang. “Why do populists flip-flop on soldiers? The drug war’s civil-military commitment problem.” In Handbook on Democracy and Security. Eds. Nicholas A. Seltzer and Steven Lloyd Wilson. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. 211-230. 2023.

Timothy Tennyson and Michelle Schwarze. “An honest man?: Rousseau’s critique of Locke’s character education.” European Journal of Political Theory. 2023.

2022

Aili Mari Tripp and Thomas S. Worth. “War, Peace, and Security.” The Routledge Global History of Feminism. Eds. Bonnie G. Smith and Nova Robinson. 2022.

Anton Shirikov. “The Oligarch Vanishes: Defensive Ownership, Property Rights, and Political Connections.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science. (With John Earle, Scott Gehlbach, and Solomiya Shpak.) 2022.

Anton Shirikov. “Russia: Muddling Through Populism and the Pandemic.” Renno, Lucio, and Nils Ringe (eds.). Populists and the Pandemic: How Populists Around the World Respond to COVID-19. Routledge. With Yoshiko M. Herrera and Valeriia Umanets. 2022.

Chagai M. Weiss, Alexandra Siegel, and David Romney “How Threats of Exclusion Mobilize Palestinian Political Participation.” The American Journal of Political Science. 2022.

Chagai Weiss, Eugene Finkel, Yon Lupu, Dan Miodownik, and Neal Tsur. “Atypical Violence and Conflict Dynamics: Evidence from Jerusalem.” Political Science Research and Methods. 2022.

Chagai Weiss, Kyle Peyton, and Paige Vaughn. “Beliefs about Minority Representation in Policing and Support for Diversification.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2022.

Chagai Weiss, Ryan Brutger, Joshua Kertzer, Jonathan Renshon, and Dustin Tingley. “Abstraction and Detail in Experimental Design. American Journal of Political Science. 2022.

Hyo Won Lee, Yena Kim, and Whasun Jho. “Domestic Politics and Requests for UNESCO’s International Assistance Program.” International Interactions. 2022.

Jérémie Langlois. “When Reorganizing Coercion Backfires: Explaining the Mechanisms of Revolt in Sudan and Algeria.” Democratization, 29:7, 1310-1331. 2022.

Katherine Jensen and Lisa M. Sousa Dias. “Varied Racialization and Legal Inclusion: Haitian, Syrian, and Venezuelan Forced Migrants in Brazil.” American Behavioral Scientist. 2022.

Lotem Bassan-Nygate & Gadi Heimann. “Dealing with Guilt and Shame in International Politics.” International Relations. 2022.

Marta Lorimer & Ethan vanderWilden. “France: Balancing respectability and radicalization in a pandemic.” In Populists and the Pandemic: How Populists Around the World Respond to COVID-19, eds. N. Ringe and L. Renno. London: Routledge. 2022.

Ned Littlefield and Joe Peterangelo. “Hitting Home: Milwaukee’s homeownership inequities and how we compare to peer cities.” Wisconsin Policy Forum. 2022.

Peter Erikson, Marko Kljajic, and Nadav Shelef. “Domestic military deployments in response to COVID-19.” Armed Forces & Society. 2022.

Philip D. Bunn. “Silicon Valley Stoics?: Life-Hacking, Transhumanism, and Stoic Therapy.” Political Science Reviewer. 2022.

Rikhil R. Bhavnani and Saloni Bhogale. “India in 2021: At the Crossroads.” Asian Survey 62(1): 161–172. 2022.

Ryan Brutger, Joshua D. Kertzer, Jonathan Renshon, Dustin Tingley and Chagai M. Weiss. “Abstraction and Detail in Experimental Design.” The American Journal of Political Science. 2022.

Saloni Bhogale & Pavithra Suryanarayan. “India: The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly Consequences of India’s Pandemic Response.” In Populists and the Pandemic: How Populists Around the World Respond to COVID-19, eds. N. Ringe and L. Renno. London: Routledge. 2022.

Sujin Cha, Yehzee Ryoo, and Sung Eun Kim. “Losing Hearts and Minds? Unpacking the Effects of Chinese Soft Power Initiatives in Africa.” Asian Survey: 1-30. 2022.

Timothy T. Tennyson. “Cicero’s Romulus and the Crafting of Historical Exempla.” History of Political Thought, Vol. 43, No.1. 2022.

Xinzhi Zhao, “Ideological Context and the Study of Political Theory.” Hobbes Studies, Vol. 35, Issue 1. 2022.

2021

Alexander Kustov, Dillon Laaker, and Cassidy Reller. “The Stability of Immigration Attitudes: Evidence and Implications.” Journal of Politics. 83 (4): 1478-1494. 2021.

Anton Shirikov. “Who Gets Ahead in Authoritarian Parliaments? The Case of the Russian State Duma.” The Journal of Legislative Studies. 2021.

Barry C. Burden and Rochelle Snyder. “Explaining Uncontested Seats in Congress and State Legislatures.” American Politics Research. 2021.

Chagai M. Weiss.“Diversity in Israeli Healthcare Institutions Reduces Prejudice towards Arabs.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118.14. 2021.

Frederick R. Chen. “Extended Dependence: Trade, Alliances, and Peace.” Journal of Politics. 83(1): 246–259. 2021.

Haftel, Yoram Z., Soo Yeon Kim, & Lotem Bassan-Nygate. “High-Income Developing Countries, FDI Outflows and the International Investment Agreement Regime.” World Trade Review, 1-17. 2021.

Jiaqi Lu. “The Politics of Coal in the United States.” Book chapter, Political Determinants of Energy and Climate Policy, Routledge Press, with Gregory Nemet. 2021.

Jiaqi Lu. “Investigation of a coupling coordination degree model between low-carbon development and air quality in China.” Advances in Climate Change Research, (with T. Liu and Q. Song, and Y. Qi). 2021.

Juan Qian. “Historical Ethnic Conflicts and the Rise of Islamophobia in Modern China.” Ethnopolitics. 2021.

Kate M. Carter. “Internet Access and Control in Uganda.” In Examining Internet and Technology around the World, ed. Laura M. Steckman (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO). 2021.

Levi Bankston & Barry C. Burden. “Voter mobilization efforts can depress turnout.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. 2021.

Lotem Bassan-Nygate & Chagai M. Weiss. “Party Competition and Cooperation Shape Affective Polarization: Evidence from Natural and Survey Experiments in Israel.” Comparative Political Studies. 2021.

Lotem Bassan-Nygate. “My Heart is in the West: Formation of Western Identity in Israel around the Korean War.” Politika, 30: 40-61. 2021.

Omar O. Dumdum & Levi Bankston. “The Interplay of Actors in Political Communication: The State of the Subfield.” Political Communication. 2021.

Philip D. Bunn. “Transcendent Rebellion: The Influence of Simone Weil on Albert Camus’ Esthetics.” Perspectives on Political Science. 2021.

Rochlitz, Evgeniia Mitrokhina, & Nizovkina, I. “Bureaucratic discrimination in electoral authoritarian regimes: Experimental evidence from Russia.” European Journal of Political Economy. 2021.

Veronica Fenocchio Azzi and Ned Littlefield. “Continuidade ou mudança? As relações civis-militares após a Intervenção Federal no Rio de Janeiro.” Revista Eletrônica de Ciência Política 12(1): 29-48. 2021.

Xinzhi Zhao. “A Ciceronian Defense of Democratic Participation.” Política & Sociedade, vol. 20, no. 47, pp. 103–129. 2021.

Recent Student Awards

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2025

UW-Madison Department of Political Science 2025 TA Awards

Ronald Rapoport Summer Research Collaborative Program

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program (Honorable Mention)

UW-Madison Campus Teaching Award: Advanced Achievement in Teaching Award

International Division Pre-Dissertation Scholarship

Graduate School Student Commitment to Engagement and Activism Award

College of Letters & Science Teaching Mentors Program

M. Crawford Young Award in African Politics

2024

APSA 2024 Advancing Research Grant for Indigenous Politics

2025 Department of Political Science Teaching Fellows Award

APSA Religion and Politics grant for her project “Sacred Votes: How Evangelical Churches Influence Electoral Outcomes in Brazil”

Mildred Potter Hovland Journal Article Prize for his Political Research Quarterly article: “Does Artificial Intelligence Speak Our Language? A Gadamerian Assessment of Generative Language Models.”

UW-Madison Department of Political Science Best Dissertation Prize

2024 Merze Tate Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of international relations, law, and politics

APSA Experimental Research Section prize for the best dissertation defended in 2023

2024 National Institute of Social Science Dissertation grant

Reilly-Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Grant for their project “Engaging Wisconsin’s Native Americans in Social Science Research”

Emerging Scholar Award by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation

MPSA Sophonisba Breckinridge Award (best paper on women and politics for her paper “Symbolic Representation in New Democracies”)

2024-2025 Minerva-USIP Peace and Security Fellow (U.S. Institute of Peace)

Law and Science Dissertation Grant

UW-Madison Department of Political Science 2024 TA Awards

2024-25 APSA Diversity Fellow

College of Letters & Science Teaching Mentors Program

UW-Madison Campus Teaching Award: Capstone Teaching Award

Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship (FLAS)

2023

Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA II) Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education

Ronald Rapoport Summer Research Collaborative Program

George Washington Statesmanship Fellow

APSA Small Grant Proposal for Research in Religion and Politics

APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grant for Indigenous Politics

Travel, Research, and Engagement Grant from the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)

Mildred Potter Hovland Prize

  • Xinzhi Zhao, “Monopoly and the Dysfunction of the Social Mechanism of Equal Respect,” published in the Adam Smith Review

Leon Epstein Prize

  • Dillon Laaker, “Economic Shocks and the Development of Immigration Attitudes,” published in the British Journal of Political Science

APSA Centennial Center Summer Research Grant

ASEEES Dissertation Improvement Grant

Visiting fellowship at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Carnegie/Harriman Research Grant

Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship (FLAS)

UW-Madison Department of Political Science Best Dissertation Prize

URS Exceptional Mentorship Award for 2022-2023

UW-Madison Department of Political Science 2023 TA Awards

Crawford Young Research Award

APSA’s 2023-2024 Spring Diversity Fellowship

Frank Cass 2023 Award for Best Article by a Young Scholar published in Democratization in 2022 (“When reorganizing coercion backfires: explaining the mechanisms of revolt in Sudan and Algeria”)

Review of Politics Award (MPSA) for her paper: “Machiavelli’s Ecstatic Politics: An Invitation to an Inquiry”

Best Graduate Student Paper for the MPSA Latina/o Caucus Best Graduate Student Paper for “The Construction of Latino Identity in Presidential Elections”

2022

Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)

UW-Madison University Housing Honored Instructor Award

University of Wisconsin-Madison Capstone Teaching Award

UW-Madison Middle East Studies Program Award for Excellence in Graduate Research

Mildred Potter Hovland Journal Article Prize

APSA Dissertation Improvement Grant

UW-Madison Department of Political Science Best Dissertation Prize

Sabbatical Award, Institute for Humane Studies

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)

College of Letters & Science Teaching Mentor

Fellow, ASPA’s Institute for Civically Engaged Research (ICER)

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF)

Crawford Young Research Award

Bouchet Society Inductee

UW-Madison Department of Political Science 2022 TA Awards

George L. Mosse Graduate Exchange Fellowship

Bourse and Bazaar Foundation Visiting Fellowship

Humane Studies Fellowship

Mary Washburn Willetts Award

U.S. Department of State, Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad

IRIS Fieldwork Award

Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship

Ronald Rapoport Summer Research Collaborative Program

2021

Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), U.S. Department of State

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)

APSA Dissertation Improvement Grant

APSA Summer Centennial Grant

L&S Teaching Fellows Award

University of Wisconsin-Madison Capstone Teaching Award

University of Wisconsin-Madison Early Excellence in Teaching Award

University of Wisconsin-Madison Continuity of Instruction Award

UW-Madison Department of Political Science 2021 TA Awards

Humane Studies Fellowship

Jordan Prize, African Studies Program

Genevieve Gorst Herfurth Award for Outstanding Research in the Social Sciences

Mildred Potter Hovland Journal Article Prize

Leon Esptein Prize in American and British Politics

Adam Smith Fellowship, Mercatus Center

Research Group Funding Award (Survey of attitudes toward GMOs in Mexico), University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hsueh International Fellowship Fund, American Political Science Association

Oskar Morgenstern Fellowship, George Mason University

CREECA FLAS Fellow (Kazakh language and Central Asian area studies)

Charles and Gayle Mazursky Student Support Fund, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ronald Rapoport Summer Research Collaborative Program

2020

George and Sylvia Laikin Prize, Center for Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Teaching Fellow Award, UW-Madison College of Letters & Sciences

Teaching Assistant Award, Integrated Liberal Studies Program

UW-Madison Department of Political Science TA Award

Don Lavoie Fellowship, Mercatus Center

Genevieve Gorst Herfurth Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison

David A. Lake Award, International Political Economy Society

Holtz Center Travel Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Future Faculty Partner, University of Wisconsin-Madison Teaching Academy

Graduate student research award from the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

UW-Madison Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies (LACIS)

Brazil Initiative’s Joaquim Nabuco Award for Graduate Students