News

Graduating senior Benicio De Palm (who majored in Political Science Public Service) was featured in the latest issue of Explorations: The UC Davis Undergraduate Research Journal, which highlights original work from students across disciplines. Benicio's research article, "The Effects of Post-Communist Democratization on Sporting Success in Eastern Europe" was supported by Professor Jo Andrews. Check it out here!

It is with great joy that we announce the successful endowment of the Walter J. Stone Graduate Summer Fellowship. Professor Stone only recently learned of the endowment, and he received the news with his trademark humility. The endowment is a fitting way to commemorate his extraordinary contributions to our field and to so many of us personally. The endowment will pay for a summer stipend for at least one UC Davis Political Science graduate student, allowing the student to focus on their research over the summer. 

RyuGyung Park (UCD PhD 2025) recently published an article in International Interactions, titled "Is trade the enemy of environment?: Congressional voting on environmental policies after the China shock".  In this article, Park asks "how does a sudden increase in imports affect support for environmental policies?" While many perceive international trade as the enemy of the environment, she finds some evidence that an increase in imports weaken dirty industries insofar as it opens up room for more pro-environmental votes in the US Congress.

Three UC Davis Political Science affiliates published research in a new edited volume on political institutions. Associate Professor Lauren Young and PhD candidate Enrico La Viña published a chapter in the Handbook of Innovations in Political Psychology. The chapter, entitled "Experiments in and on political institutions", explains how experiments can be used to both describe institutions and identify the effects of institutional changes and discusses the potential and pitfalls of common experimental designs.

Anissa Joseph (PhD candidate) and Professor Juan Tellez, along with co-author Nura Sedqie, recently published an article in the Journal of Politics in Latin America, titled "Who Should Benefit from Group-Based Quotas? Experimental Evidence from Brazil". Group-based quotas and affirmative action policies are common in many parts of the world. A large literature has focused on public debates over the perceived fairness of these policies. Joseph et al.

Timea Balogh (PhD candidate) and Professor James Adams, along with co-authors Will Horne, Simon Weschle, and Christopher Wlezien, recently published an article in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, titled "Does political sophistication moderate how citizens use information to infer left-right distances between parties?" Much prior research examines what shapes citizens’ perceptions of parties’ positions, including histories of co-governance, the left-right tone of their election manifestos, and media reports of their public interactions.

UC Davis PhD alumni continue excellent streak of academic placements, including Dylan Forrester (2025 PhD) as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bergen; Menglin (Miley) Liu (2025 PhD) as an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; RyuGyung (Rio) Park (2025 PhD) as an Assistant Professor at The College of William & Mary; Ray Brandt (2024 PhD) as a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of North Florida; Jonathan Colner (2024 PhD) as an Assistant Professor at American University; Rana McReynolds as an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly

PhD candidate Yu-Shiuan Huang has been awarded the Rapoport Family Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Survey Research Grant (DDSRG) to support her research on the relationship between affective polarization and (anti)democratic attitudes. Her project examines why electoral winners are more willing to support democratic norm violations. Her findings suggest that winners are less likely to assess norm-eroding policies through strategic political calculations.