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Department of Political Science

Awards and Accolades for Faculty

Ben Smith was selected Professor of the Year, 2022.

A Spanish translation of Leslie Anderson’s book Democratization by Institutions: Argentina’s Transition Years in Comparative Perspective, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2016 has now been published. The Spanish version is entitled Democratizacion a traves de las instituciones, Prometeo Libros, Buenos Aires, 2022. The book was published in the same series that released Guillermo O’Donnell’s books.

Dan Smith is part of a UF/UConn team that was awarded a NSF RAPID award ($125,796) for a study, “Institutional Change and Intergroup Attitudes,” which aims to test the hypothesis that intergroup attitudes function as an outcome of institutional policy by focusing on mass attitudes towards abortion in advance of and after the US Supreme Court’s Summer ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  The main UF PI is Katherine Ratliff (Psychology).

James Fahey & Hannah Alarian‘s article “When populists win: How right-wing populism affects democratic satisfaction in the U.K. and Germany,” (with Trevor J. Allen) has been published at Electoral Studies.

Sharon Austin published a chapter entitled, “Andrew Gillum’s Quest to Become Florida’s First Black Governor” inHistoric Firsts in U.S. Elections: Trailblazing Candidates in Gubernatorial, Congressional, and Mayoral Campaigns, edited by Evelyn M. Simien and published by Routledge Press in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and gender in the Social Sciences at Duke University.

Sharon Austin has been awarded the Diversity Champion Award from the UF Office of Graduate Diversity Initiatives. This award recognizes faculty members who have enhanced and contributed to the overall graduate environment by actively and positively promoting the concept of diversity and improving cross-cultural understanding and inclusivity in the university environment. Congratulations, Sharon!

Grossman, Guy, Andrew S. Rosenberg, Audrey Sacks, Ivan Torre, Austin Wright, Harry Cook, and Claire Galez Davis (2022) Economic Shocks and Human Trafficking Risks: Evidence from IOM’s Victims of Human Trafficking Database Washington, DC: World Bankhttps://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/37261 

Juliana Restrepo Sanín (2022) Violence against women in politics as an unintended consequence of democratization, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 24:1, 16-39, DOI: 10.1080/14616742.2021.2014343.

Leonardo A. Villalón, along with co-P.I’s Sarah McKune (Environmental and Global Health and African Studies) and Renata Serra (African Studies), has been awarded a three year grant of a $1.6 million grant from the Minerva Research Initiative to study the impact of climate change in West Africa.  Their project, Social & institutional determinants of vulnerability & resilience to climate hazards in the Sahelwas one of seventeen grants selected from 220 applications in this year’s competition. Gregory Kiker (Agricultural and Biological Engineering) and Steven Radil of the US Air Force Academy will also contribute to the project.

Angela McCarthy. 2022. Review of Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics by David E. Campbell, Geoffrey C. Layman, and John C. Green. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. In The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Sharon Austin presented research from her book, The Caribbeanization of Black Politics: Race, Group Consciousness, and Political Participation in America, to students and faculty from the African American Studies and Political Science Departments at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on February 17, 2022 via zoom.

Sharon Austin presented information from her forthcoming co-edited book, Beyond Racial Capitalism: Cooperatives in the African Diaspora (In production, Oxford University Press), to students at the University of Toronto on February 16, 2022 via zoom.

Narrelle Gilchrist, Amanda B. Edgell & Sebastian Elischer (2022) “Tribeless and democratic youth? Political attitudes of Kenyan university students toward ethnicity and democracy,” Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, DOI: 10.1080/00083968.2021.2008998.

Kelly Richardson is one of the co-authors of this article on Monkey Cage in The Washington PostThe bomb threats against Howard University affect far more than a single university by Tiffany Willoughby-Herard; Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd; Khalilah L. Brown-Dean; Pearl K. Dowe; Duchess Harris; Kelly Richardson; Françoise Cromer; Elsie Scott. Published on February 16, 2022.

Michael Bernhard published two new working papers with the V-Dem Institute:

Wooseok Kim, Michael Bernhard, and Allen Hicken, “Electoral Volatility and Regime Survival in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes,” University of Gothenburg, Varieties of Democracy Institute: Working Paper No. 129. February 2022.

Sebastian Hellmeier and Michael Bernhard, “Mass Mobilization and Regime Change. Evidence From a New Measure of Mobilization for Democracy and Autocracy From 1900 to 2020,” University of Gothenburg, Varieties of Democracy Institute: Working Paper No. 128. January 2022.

Paul Gutierrez received a Rothman Summer Fellowship from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere for his project “Incorporating America, 1763-1823: The Settler Colonial and Revolutionary Origins of the Modern Corporation in America.”

N’Jahari Jackson and Sharon Austin published an op-ed “Muslims control Michigan’s ‘Little Warsaw:’ Is it a hollow prize?” in Governing on February 4, 2022.

On Tuesday, January 25th, Sharon Austin, Mike McDonald, and Dan Smith were awarded the David King Defenders of Democracy Award by the League of Women Voters of Florida at a ceremony honoring their fight for academic freedom in Tallahassee.

Sharon Austin, Daniel Smith, and Michael McDonald were recognized as 2021 Science Defenders by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Conor O’Dwyer. 2021. “What is to be Done? Framings of Urban Populism in Prague and Warsaw.” Urbana: Urban Affairs and Public Policy, 22: 40-62. (https://urbanauapp.org/special-issue-2021/).

Michael Bernhard published a piece entitled “Democratic Backsliding in Poland and Hungary,” in Slavic Review 80, no. 3 (Fall 2021): 585–607. Available open access here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/democratic-backsliding-in-poland-and-hungary/8B1C30919DC33C0BC2A66A26BFEE9553.

Sharon Austin  received a Haskell Faculty Research Award to work with undergraduate student N’Jhari Jackson on a project examining the civic engagement of UF student athletes. This is two Haskell awards in one year, both received for the first time in Political Science!

Stephen C. Craig, Angela Farizo McCarthy, and Jason Gainous, “Question Wording and Attitudinal Ambivalence: COVID, the Economy, and Americans’ Response to a Real-Life Trolley Problem,” Social Science Quarterlyhttps://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13102.

Janusz, Andrew, and Luiz Augusto Campos (2021) “Candidate Advertisements and Afro-Brazilian Political Marginalization,” Latin American Research Review 56(4), pp. 761–778. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.888.

Issue 19:4 of Perspectives on Politics published.  The entirety of the frontsmatter was devoted to a special issue on “Race and Politics in America.”  It includes an editorial essay by Michael Bernhard and Daniel O’Neill by the same title.  The TOC is here — https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/latest-issue.

Hannah Alarian and Cristian Perez-Munoz have been awarded 2022 Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Funds, which “support stimulating new or existing research activity in the humanities, particularly that which may lead to extramural funding.”

Hannah Alarian has also won a Haskell Faculty Research Award to work with Payton Capes-Davis (undergraduate political science major) on a project titled Immigrant Voting Rights in the United States. This is the first Haskell Award in the Department. Congratulations, Hannah!

Aleksandar Hemon, Aida A. Hozić and Srdjan Vučetić, “Democracy is in trouble, and Biden’s summit is not going to fix it,” POLITICO-Europe, December 9, 2021.

Since January 2021, Aida A. Hozić has been serving as a member of the Editorial Board and an editor of Review of International Political Economy. Starting November 1, she is also a member of a diverse new Editorial Team of International Political Sociology as one of the journal’s co-editors.

Jenny Edkins, Julio César Díaz CalderónAida A. Hozić et al. “Tales of Entanglement,” Millennium. 2021;49(3):604-626. doi:10.1177/03058298211034918.

Leslie E. Anderson, “Robert Dahl, la Constitución Estadounidense y Donald Trump. Algunas consideraciones sobre la supervivencia de la democracia en los Estados Unidos.” (“Robert Dahl, the American Constitution and Donald Trump:  Some Thoughts on Democracy’s Survival in the United States”) in in Huellas de los Estados Unidos, Buenos Aires, Vol 21, No 2, October 2021, p. 5-28. Available at http://huellasdeeua.com/ediciones/edicion21/01-Leslie%20E.%20Anderson_pp.05-28.pdf.

Janusz, Andrew and Cameron Sells (2021).  “Race and Campaign Resources: Candidate Identification Numbers in Brazil” Journal of Politics in Latin America. Can be accessed here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1866802X211052625.

Sharon Austin‘s chapter, “Selected Works of African American Studies Faculty at the University of Florida” was published in African American Studies: 50 Years at the University of Florida (University Press of Florida 2021).

The University Press of Florida is delighted to announce the launch of Government and Politics in the South, which is a book series led by Dr. Sharon Wright Austin and Dr. Angela Lewis-Maddox. Books in this series will explore the myriad aspects of civil rights, government, political science, political history, and public policies in the American South. https://upf.com/seriesresult.aspser=Government_and_Politics_in_the_South.

Ben Smith and David Waldner, “Concepts, Measures, and Rabbit Holes: Studying Resource Wealth from the Middle East Out, “ APSA-MENA 4, 2 (fall 2021): 29-32.

David Cottrell, Felix E. Herron, Michael C. Herron, and Daniel A. Smith (2021). “Auditing the 2020 General Election in Georgia: Residual Vote Rates and a Confusing Ballot Format,” Election Law Journal. Can be accessed here: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2020.0708#utm_source=FastTrack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=elj.

Cristian Pérez-Muñoz, The Strange Silence of Latin American Political Theory, Political Studies Review. First Published June 25, 2021

Cristian Pérez-Muñoz, Much Ado About Facebook? Evidence from 80 Congressional Campaigns in Chile, Journal of Information Technology & Politics (Online First) (With Juan Pablo Luna, Sergio Toro, Fernando Rosenblatt, Sebastián Valenzuela, Andrés Cruz, Naim Bro, Daniel Alcatruz and Andrea Escobar).

Perspectives 19:3 has been published. It includes a special section on Comparative Historical Analysis. See the introductory essay by colleagues Michael Bernhard and Dan O’Neill here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/comparative-historical-analysis/53A6AB1CD94F439C2CEC9A6DD9814504.

Sharon D. Wright Austin. 2021. “Contemporary Black Populism and the Development of Multiracial Coalitions: The 2018 Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum Gubernatorial Campaigns.” Political Science Quarterly. June 15.

Hilbink, Lisa, Valentina Salas, Janice K. Gallagher, and Juliana Restrepo Sanín. “Why People Turn to Institutions They Detest: Institutional Mistrust and Justice System Engagement in Uneven Democratic States.” Comparative Political Studies (2021):https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140211024299.

Sanín, Juliana Restrepo. “Latin America leads the way in fighting violence and harassment against women in politics.” European Journal of Politics and Gender (2021) https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16203161599282 .

Congratulations to Sharon Austin, Bryon Moraski, and Ben Smith, each a recipient of a UF Term Professorship for 2021-24.

Hye Ryeon Jang and Ben Smith, “Pax Petrolica? Rethinking the Oil-Interstate War Linkage,” Security Studies.

Bernhard, Michael. 2021. “1989 Inverted: Transformative Authoritarian Memory and the Rise of Populism in Poland and Hungary.” In Nathan Stoltzfus and Christopher Osmar, eds. The Power of Populism and People: Resistance and Protest in the Modern World. London, Bloomsbury.

Bernhard, Michael, Daniel O’Neill and Jennifer Boylan. 2021. “Perspectives on Politics Editors’ Report, 2020.” Political Science Today, 1(2): 55-59.

Perspectives 19(2) published in June.  The Table of Contents is here. It includes an introductory essay by Michael Bernhard and Daniel O’Neill – “The Politics of Immigration.”

Janusz, Andrew, Sofi-Nicole Barreiro, and Erika Cintron. “Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections.” Party Politics (2021)

Janusz, Andrew. “Electoral incentives and elite racial identification: Why Brazilian politicians change their race.” Electoral Studies 72 (2021)

Janusz, Andrew. “Race and Resources in Brazilian Mayoral Elections.” Political Research Quarterly (2021)

Enrijeta Shino, Michael D. Martinez, and Michael Binder. 2021.  “Determined By Mode? Representation and Measurement Effects in a Dual-Mode Statewide Survey.” Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology

O’Dwyer, Conor and Matthew Stenberg. 2021. “Local-Level Democratic Backsliding? The Consolidation of Aspiring Dominant-Party Regimes in Hungary and Poland.” Government and Opposition, 1-24.

Brian Amos and Michael P. McDonald’s research  “A Method to Audit the Assignment of Registered Voters to Districts and Precincts,” was published by Cambridge University Press in the January 2020 Political Analysis journal.

Congratulations to Kenneth Wald, UF Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science and the Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professor Emeritus of American Jewish Culture & Society, has won a 2019 National Jewish Book Award. Wald’s book, The Foundations of American Jewish Liberalism(Cambridge University Press) and earned the Celebrate 350 Award, given to a nonfiction book about the Jewish experience in North America. The scholarly work examines how American Jews developed a distinct culture grounded in liberal values. For more on Ken’s wonderful accomplishment, see the CLAS announcement.

Richard Conley was awarded a grant from the Carl Albert Center at the University of Oklahoma to attend a Native American Political Archival Workshop from 11-13 March. He will be assessing the archival records of Dewey Bartlett, Governor and Senator from Oklahoma, who was a policy entrepreneur in promoting Native American issues including territorial sovereignty in the 1960s and 1970s. The workshop fits with Conley’s new book project on American national institutions and Native American policy from 1949-present.

The first book out of V-Dem has published with Cambridge University Press: Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change, Michael Bernhard is a coauthor on two chapters – “Conceptual Scheme” and “Data Validation.”

Hannah L. Walker, Michael C. Herron, and Daniel A. Smith’s research paper, “Early Voting Changes and Voter Turnout: North Carolina in the 2016 General Election,” was published in Political Behavior.

Congratulations to Nicholas Kerr, who was awarded the Junior Faculty, International Educator of the Year Award, for the College of Arts and Sciences on November 18.

Sara Wallace Goodman and Hannah M. Alarian’s research on  “National Belonging and Public Support for Multiculturalism.” was published in the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics.

Conor O’Dwyer’s research on “The Democratization of Urban Planning in Prague” was presented at the International Conference on Cities and Change “Three Decades of Post-socialist Transition” conference proceedings.

Michael McDonald was awarded $843,000 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to continue DistrictBuilder redistricting software development and to continue data collection and dissemination.

Andrew Janusz received Global Fellows Program Award. The program provides an opportunity for early-career UF faculty to kick-start an international research program. A series of workshops and training sessions, along with a seed grant of $5,000, provides fellows an opportunity to lay the groundwork for an international research project.

Paul M. Silva II & Zachary Selden’s research “Economic interdependence and economic sanctions: a case study of European Union sanctions on Russia” was published by the Cambridge Review of International Affairs

Hannah M. Alarian & Michael Neureiter were published for their research “Values or origin? Mandatory immigrant integration and immigration attitudes in Europe” in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Angela F McCarthy, Laura R Olson, and James C Garand were published for their research “Religious Right, Religious Left, Both, or Neither? Understanding Religio-Political Identification.” in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Thessalia Merivaki and Daniel A. Smith were published for their research “A Failsafe for Voters? Cast and Rejected Provisional Ballots in North Carolina,” in Political Research Quarterly.

Dan O’Neill contributed to writing of The Wollstonecraftian Mind (New York and London: Routledge, 2019), and is the author of it’s fifth chapter “The Scottish Enlightenment”.