News

GROW Grants Nurture Vital Projects During Pandemic

February 24, 2021

Two faculty members and three graduate students who are working on food systems, food security and food sustainability research have received small grants through the UC Global Food Initiative (GFI) to bolster their projects. “COVID-19 has really dampened research, so we wanted to find ways to...

Professor Aditya Dasgupta: Tens of Thousands of Famers Protest Ag Laws in India

February 12, 2021

Professor Aditya Dasgupta, who specializes in the politics of India, spoke with Vox about the protests in India and the larger political statement and impact. Tens of thousands of farmers blockaded main roads across India on Saturday in a continuation of a months-long protest movement...

Professor Jessica Trounstine: What a Victorian Disease Detective Proved About Urban Health

January 8, 2021

More than 150 years ago, a renowned physician named John Snow walked the gritty streets of London’s working-class Golden Square neighborhood, not far from his office in the city’s Soho district, knocking on the doors of residents felled by the cholera epidemic. Why Soho was so hard-hit...

Professor Trounstine's Work to Inform Bay Area Policy

December 18, 2020

Political Science Professor Jessica Trounstine’s book, Segregation By Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities, is the basis for a new initiative by the Association of Bay Area Governments/Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Trounstine and her research team, that...

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 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 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 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...