News

Professor Tom Hansford: How Weather Impacts Voter Turnout and Election Results.

November 6, 2020

John F. Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election by such a narrow margin that it’s easy to imagine how history might have turned out differently. What if Kennedy had lost a key endorsement or Richard Nixon had better prepared for the first debate? What if it had rained on...

Professor Matthew Hibbing: Politics Are A Cause of Stress for Students

November 3, 2020

As the 2020 election has grown nearer, students have become overstressed about the modern political climate and the possible implications of the election results to the point where it is negatively affecting their mental health. According to a study conducted by Kevin Smith and...

Professor Nate Monroe: Ties to Trump Are An Issue in Competitive California House Race

November 3, 2020

In 2018, Fresno Democrat TJ Cox edged three-term GOP Rep. David Valadao by 862 votes in a contest that wasn’t decided until nearly a month after election day. The two Central Valley politicians are back this year for a rematch in what has become one of the nation’s most expensive...

Professor Jessica Trounstine: Trump's Campaign On Suburban Preservation

October 30, 2020

Presidential campaigns rarely push mundane housing matters like zoning disputes or local development choices into the national spotlight. But eager to win suburban voters, President Donald Trump has brought housing policy into the national debate, taking swipes at California lawmakers,...

Professor Jessica Trounstine: What Trump Misunderstands About Suburban Voters

October 28, 2020

In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, Professor and UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair Jessica Trounstine says that however fervent they are, not-in-my-backyard sentiments are unlikely to win many new voters to Trump’s side. During the Republican National...

Political Scientists Study Effects of Affluence in Newest Nature Publication

October 14, 2020

How does socioeconomic inequality affect people? Seeing expensive items such as cars, which function as signs of social class, can potentially influence people’s political behavior according to a new study by political science professors Melissa Sands and Daniel de Kadt in the journal Nature. The...

Woo to Join Gettysburg College

May 11, 2020

We are delighted to announce that Ph.D. Candidate Ae sil Woo will join Gettysburg College in August 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Political Science. This continues our department's strong run of Ph.D. placements, and she becomes the first UC Merced Political Science Ph.D. to join a Liberal...

Political Scientist Trounstine Appointed Inaugural Endowed Presidential Chair

October 29, 2019

Political science Professor Jessica Trounstine has been awarded the inaugural UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair. This chair was created to recognize the excellent contributions of a faculty member in a field of research at the discretion of the chancellor. Chancellor Emerita...

Welcoming Assistant Professor Andrew Shaver

October 7, 2019

Professor Shaver joins UC Merced from Stanford University, where he was a postdoctoral research scholar in the Political Science Department. Before that, he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Dartmouth College. Shaver earned his PhD in Public Affairs (security...

Hansford, Canelo, and Depaoli in PSQ

August 16, 2019

Prof. Thomas Hansford and recent PhD Kayla Canelo, along with Prof. Sarah Depaoli (UC Merced Psychology), have just published "Locating US Solicitors General in the Supreme Court's Policy Space" at Presidential Studies Quarterly. Congratulations to Prof. Hansford, Dr. Canelo...