Hire Our Students 

Our graduate program emphasizes rigorous and pluralistic methodological training along with a solid education in every branch of political inquiry.

Find out more information about our students on the job market:

Justin Freebourn 

Email: justin.freebourn@gmail.com

Website: justinfreebourn.com

Field of study:  American Politics/Mass Behavior

Dissertation title: Fiscal Policy Preferences in the U.S. Context: Theory, measurement, and practice

Dissertation advisor: Jennifer Merolla

Publications: 

"Preferences for Single-party versus Multi-party Governments in the Mass Public” with Shaun Bowler, Todd Donovan, and Jack Vowles. 2024. Party Politics.

"The Power of Equality? Polarization and Collective Mis-representation on Gay Rights in Congress, 1989–2019” with Benjamin Bishin and Paul Teten. 2020. Political Research Quarterly.

"Constituent communication through telephone town halls: A field experiment involving members of Congress” with Claire Abernathy, Kevin Esterling, Ryan Kennedy, William Minozzi, Michael Neblo, and Jonathan Solis. Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Working Papers:

"Scientific Duty: On a socio-politico-technical model of ideology” submitted to Journal of Politics.

"Quantitative Textualism: A computational method and legal theory for drawing valid inferences from survey data” submitted to American Journal of Political Science.

“Towards an Integrative, Mathematical Model of Corporate Social Responsibility in Market-based Economic Systems” submitted to Academy of Management Perspectives.

“Policy Solidarity: Revisiting the Agrarian Theory of Justice” with Victoria Lam. Submitted to Academy of Management Perspectives.

Awards:

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, 2018, 2022

Sean Long 

Email: slong008@ucr.edu

Website: https://seandlong.github.io/

Fields of Study: Mass Political Behavior, Political Theory

Dissertation Title: The Politics of White Violence

Dissertation Advisors: Loren Collingwood and Farah Godrej

Publications:

"White identity, Donald Trump, and the mobilization of extremism". 2022. Politics, Groups, and Identities, DOI: 10.1080/21565503.2022.2025868

"Demographic Change, White Decline, and the Changing Nature of Racial Politics in Election Campaigns" with Loren Collingwood and Stephanie DeMora. 2022.. In D. Osborne & C. Sibley (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 228-242). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

 "Can States Promote Minority Representation? Assessing the Effects of the California Voting Rights Act" with Loren Collingwood. 2021. Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 57(3) 731–762, DOI: 10.1177/1078087419896854

Working Papers:

"Whites Don’t Punish Politicians for Explicit Racial Appeals," with Charles Crabtree, Under Review

"Emotional Engagement in the Year of the Woman" with Stephanie DeMora, Christian Lindke, Jennifer Merolla, and Maricruz Osorio, Under Review

"Women and Political Ambition: Running for Us or Running for Me?" with Stephanie DeMora, Christian Lindke, Jennifer Merolla, and Maricruz Osorio, Under Review

Awards:

Graduate Student Mentorship Award: Dissertation related grant providing funding for one quarter to focus on research, UCR Political Science Department, Fall 2021

Graduate Student Research Award: Grant to field a survey experiment, UCR Political Science Department, Summer 2021

ICPSR Departmental Award: Funding to attend Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan, UCR Political Science Department, Summer 2020

Digital Humanities Fellowship: Funding to attend the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria, UCR Graduate Quantitative Methods Center, Summer 2019

Eric Benjamin Mackey

Email: emack006@ucr.edu.edu

Website: ebmackey87.wixsite.com/mackeyeric/

Fields of Study: Political Theory

Dissertation Title: Elite Philanthropy, Neoliberal Distortive Ideology, and Democratic Theory: How Democracy Can Respond to the Power of Wealthy Philanthropists.

Dissertation Advisors: John Medearis

Working Papers: 

“Toward a Critique and Embrace of Ideology in Deliberative Democratic Theory.”

“Philanthropy and Disciplinary Gratitude.” 

Awards:

Graduate Research Mentorship: Dissertation-related grant providing for one quarter to focus on research, UCR Political Science Department, Winter 2022.

Nicholas T. Willis, PhD

Email: ntwillis15@gmail.com

Website: www.nicholastwillis.com/

Fields of Study: Comparative Politics, Political Theory

Dissertation Title: Pathways to Populism: Economics, Culture, and Ideological Convergence

Dissertation Advisors: Indriði H. Indriðason

Working Papers:

Willis, N. T. Ideological Convergence: Explaining Left and Right Populist Party Voter’s Behavior [Working Paper]. Department of Political Science, University of California - Riverside.

Indriðason, I. H. & Willis, N. T.  Competing with Allies (working title) [Working Paper]. Department of Political Science, University of California - Riverside.

Awards:

IQMR Departmental Award: Funding to attend the Institute for Qualitative & Multi-Method Research at Syracuse University, UCR Political Science Department, Summer 2020