The Research in American Politics (RAP) workshop — formerly the Research in American & Comparative (RAC) politics workshop — serves as a forum for the presentation of research by faculty and graduate students in American and comparative politics. This page lists RAP presentations from previous academic years. Please see the RAP Workshop page for the current schedule.
AY 2024/2025
Organizers: Christine Slaughter, Jacob Brown, Aryssa Harris, and Laura Kerharo
AY 2022/23
Organizers: Katherine Levine Einstein
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Mar 1** | Christine Slaughter, BU | “Resilience to Adversity: How Black Voters are Mobilized to Counter Suppression“ |
| Mar 29 | Julia Payson (NYU) | “When Cities Lobby: How Local Governments Compete for Power in State Politics” |
AY 2020/21
Organizer: Katherine Levine Einstein
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Feb 8 | Kate Krimmel, Barnard | “The Rise of Programmatic Partisanship in the United States, 1856-2016″ |
| Mar 22 | Jamila Michener, Cornell | “Uncivil Democracy: Race, Power and Civil Legal Inequality” |
| May 18 | Rachel Meade, BU | “From Sidelines to Activism: Activist Paths and Grassroots Organizing in the Anti-Drumpf Resistance Movement” |
AY 2018/19
Organizers: Lauren Mattioli and Spencer Piston
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Dec 7 | Sahar Abi Hassan, BU | Specialization or Generalization: the Evolution of Ties within US Supreme Court Advocacy |
| Jan 25 | David Jones, BU | The Political Determinants of Health in the Mississippi Delta |
| Feb 15 | Matt Grossman, MSU | Red State Blues: How the Conservative Revolution Stalled in the States |
| Mar 8 | Sarah Reckhow, MSU | Outside Money in School Board Elections: The Nationalization of Education Politics |
| Mar 22 | Tom Ogorzalek, Northwestern | The Cities on the Hill |
AY 2017/2018
Organizers: Katherine Levine Einstein & Maxwell Palmer
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Sept 15 | Barry Burden, U of Wisconsin | The Contingent Effects of Candidate Sex on Voter Choice |
| Dec 1 | Gina Sapiro, BU | Report on the 2017 APSA Survey on Sexual Harassment at Annual Meetings |
| Feb 2 | Clarissa Hayward, Wash U | This is What Democracy Looks Like! How the People Can Really Rule |
| Feb 16 | Jennifer Chudy, Wellesley | Racial Sympathy and its Limits |
| Feb 27 | Shauna Shames, Rutgers-Camden | Who Runs, Who Wins? A Case Study of Emerge America’s Alumnae |
| Mar 20 | Mirya Holman, Tulane | Terrorism, Gender, and the 2016 Presidential Election |
| May 4 | James Feigenbaum, BU | From the Bargaining Table to the Ballot Box: Political Effects of Right to Work Laws |
AY 2016/2017
Organizers: Katherine Levine Einstein & Maxwell Palmer
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Jan 27 | Brendan Nyhan, Dartmouth | Fact-checking and Fake News in Election 2016 |
| Feb 10 | Ariel White, MIT | Misdemeanor Disenfranchisement? Short Jail Sentences and Voting |
| May 5 | Chris Dawes, NYU | The Electoral Effect of Stop-and-Frisk |
AY 2015/2016
Organizers: Katherine Levine Einstein & David Glick
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Oct 23 | Jonathan Ladd, Georgetown | Party Polarization, Ideological Sorting and the Emergence of the Partisan Gender Gap |
| Nov 6 | Regina Bateson, MIT | Finding Meaning in Politics: Victims, Loss, and Activism |
| Feb 5 | Emily Thorson, BC | Identifying and Correcting Substantive Economic Misperceptions in the American Public |
| Feb 26 | Marco Hauptmeier, Cardiff Business School | |
| Apr 15 | Jeffrey Berry, Tufts | The Outrage Industry |
| Apr 29 | David Lewis, Vanderbilt | Political Control and the Presidential Spending Power |
AY 2014/2015
Organizers: Dino Christenson & David Glick
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Oct 3 | Maya Sen & Matthew Blackwell, Harvard | The Political Legacy of American Slavery |
| Oct 10 | Robert Huckfeldt, UC Davis | Disproportional Influence: Experts, Activists, and the Creation of Public Opinion |
| Oct 24 | Timothy Werner, UT Austin | Blacklisted Benefactors: The Political Contestation of Non-Market Strategy |
| Nov 14 | Devin Caughey, MIT | Representation without Parties: Reconsidering the One-Party South |
| Mar 27 | Alisha Holland, Harvard | Voting for Forbearance: The Politics of Informal Redistribution in Latin America |
| Apr 10 | Andrew Hall, Harvard | The Candidate Supply: How the Costs and Benefits of Running for Office Shape the Political Process |
| Apr 24 | Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro, Brown | Can Citizens Discern? Information Credibility, Political Sophistication, and the Punishment of Corruption in Brazil |
| May 1 | Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Pomona | Culture Warrior, Esquire: Understanding New Christian Right Law Schools and Legal Training Programs |
AY 2013/2014
Organizers: Dino Christenson & David Glick
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Nov 20 | Danny Hidalgo, MIT | Voter Buying: Shaping the Electorate through Clientelism |
| Dec 4 | Chris Warshaw, MIT | Public Opinion and Representation in the American States: 1970-2012 |
| Dec 11 | John Carey, Dartmouth | Party System Coordination in Transistional Democracies |
| Feb 27 | Kate Krimmel, BU | Public Opinion and Fiscal Politics |
| Mar 6 | Rosella Cappella, BU | Economic Statecraft and Power Redistribution during Wartime: Lessons from the Sterling Era and the Future of America’s Military Might |
| Mar 20 | Eitan Hersh, Yale | Dynamic Voting in a Dynamic Campaign: Three Models of Early Voting |
| Mar 27 | Ryan Kennedy, U of Houston |
Making Useful Conflict Predictions: Methods for Addressing Skewed Classes and Implementing Cost-Sensitive Learning in the Study of State Failure |
| Apr 16 | Marieke Kleine, LSE |
Informal Governance in the European Union: How governments make international organizations work (Co-Sponsored with CSE) |
AY 2012/2013
Organizers: Dino Christenson & David Glick
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| Nov 1 | Dino Christenson and David Glick, BU | Strategic Retreat Disrobed: The Court’s Legitimacy, Ideology, and Roberts’ Health Care Flip |
| Nov 13 | Katherine Levine Einstein, BU | Partisanship and Representation in Local Politics: New Evidence from Mid-Size U.S. Cities |
| Jan 29 | John Gerring and Dominic Zarecki, BU | Scaling Up: Demographics and Schumpeterian Democracy at Subnational Levels |
| Feb 5 | Kay Schlozman, BC & Sidney Verba, Harvard | The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy |
| Feb 21 | Anton Hemerijck, VU U of Amsterdam | Changing Welfare States |
| Mar 19 | Taylor Boas, BU | Media Barons and Electoral Politics: Politically-Controlled Broadcasting in Brazil |
| Apr 23 | Adam Berinsky, MIT | Rumors, Truths, and Reality: Can We Correct Political Misinformation? |
AY 2011/2012
Organizers: Dino Christenson & Doug Kriner
| Date | Speaker | Title | Discussant |
| Oct 27 | John Campbell, Dartmouth College | Knowledge Regimes and Comparative Political Economy | None |
| Nov 3 | Robert Adcock, George Washington University | The American Birth of Political Science: The Case of Woodrow Wilson | None |
| Jan 24 | David Glick, BU | Mimicking and Modifying: An Experiment in Learning From Others | Maggie Helms |
| Feb 14 | Alex Oliver, BU | Opinion Dynamics in Realistic Information Environments: Experimental Evidence from the War in Afghanistan | None |
| Feb 28 | Sigrun Olafsdottir, BU | Is Health Care Reform Contested in the U.S.? Public Attitudes Toward Government Involvement in Health Care, 1973-2010 | Matthew Maguire |
| Mar 6 | Taylor Boas, BU | Vote for Pastor Paulo: Electoral Effects of Religious Identity in Brazil | Dominic Zarecki |
| Apr 3 | Michael Woldemariam, BU | “Cohesive Stalemates” and the Logic of Insurgent Solidarity: Ethiopia’s Long War in Historical Perspective | Alejandro Avenburg |
| Apr 24 | Jesse H. Rhodes, University of Massachusetts, Amherst | Disciplining Schools? Punishing Racial Minorities? Using Survey Experiments to Investigate Public Opinion about School Sanctions in the Context of Neoliberal Social Policymaking | None |
AY 2010/2011
Organizers: Dino Christenson & Andrew Reeves
| Date | Speaker(s) | Title | Discussant |
| Nov 16 | Doug Kriner, BU | All Politics (Even Wars) are Local: Constituency Casualties, Congressional Rhetoric, and Public Opinion | Alexander Oliver |
| Dec 13 | Dino Christenson, BU | The Health Care Debate: Semantic Networks as Evidence of Media Tone | Matt Maguire |
| Feb 10 | Andrew Reeves, BU | Gubernatorial Opportunism and Partisanship: Evidence from Disaster Aid Requests | Maggie Helms |
| Mar 3 | Taylor Boas, BU | The Spoils of Victory: Campaign Donations and Government Contracts in Brazil | Dominic Zarecki |
| Apr 5 | Jon Krosnick, Stanford | What Massachusetts Residents and Other Americans Think About Global Warming: Results from An In-Depth Statewide Study and National Surveys (Discoveries Lecture co-sponsored with Department of Geography and Environment) | None |
| Apr 21 | John Gerring and Dominic Zarecki, BU | Size and Democracy, Revisited | Alejandro Avenburg |
| May 12 | Doug Kriner and Andrew Reeves, BU | Hail to the Pork? The Influence of Federal Spending on Presidential Elections | None |
Please see the RAP Workshop page for the current schedule.