Research Areas of Convergence

A wide variety of topics bring together the research interests of multiple members of the Politics Department faculty. In addition to our research in the areas listed below, we collaborate around these topics through ongoing conversations, student advising, engagement with guest speakers, and joint funding proposals. Learn more about our approach to research and see our latest publications and research news on our Research overview page.

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American political development

Within the United States, our faculty are studying issues like transformations of the welfare state, drug control, and labor policy (Bertram); American constitutional theory and development, law and politics of rights, and social movements and law (Beaumont); state politics and electoral institutions (Springer); Congress and the politics of military policy (Wirls); and punishment, criminal law, and race & inequality (Verma).

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Democratic politics: social and institutional foundations

Our research covers areas including democratic citizenship, civic education, and civic and political engagement (Beaumont); the political legitimacy of cities in world politics and transparency and accountability in global urban climate governance (Gordon); American electoral institutions and voter turnout (Springer); preference formation and transformation (Pasotti); congressional arrangements and conceptions of democracy (Wirls); discredited representative systems and electoral boycott (Serres); emerging civil society organizations in China (Read), and law and courts (Beaumont, Massoud, Verma, Wirls).

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Political economy

Political economy research within the department explores topics like contestation and cooperation in global climate governance and just transformations (Gordon); the politics of work (Bertram); varieties of capitalism (Schoenman); the historical development of political-economic discourses (Mathiowetz); post-communist politics and economy (Schoenman); geoeconomics and geopolitics (Sparke); and the politics of social policy (Niedzwiecki).

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The politics of Asia

Within Asia, our faculty study Philippine politics (Eaton), Philippine nationalism (Thomas), British colonial India (Seth), and Chinese and Taiwanese politics (Read).

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The politics of Latin America

Our faculty is researching territorial conflict, federalism, and decentralization (Eaton) and social policy (Niedzwiecki) in Latin America.

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The politics of the Middle East and Africa

Our faculty have research expertise in Middle East politics (Daifallah, Serres), Sudan and Somalia (Massoud), and South Africa (Tait).

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Race, ethnicity, and religion

We study topics including theorizations of Arab and Muslim selfhood (Daifallah), Islam in America (Massoud), and European conceptions of difference (Seth).

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The developing world

Related to global development, we study nationalism, militarism, and authoritarianism in the Global South (Serres), Arab and Islamic political thought (Daifallah), international law and development (Massoud), the quality of democracy in transitional states (Read), party and electoral systems (Eaton), the rule of law in conflict settings (Massoud), and social policy in Latin America (Niedzwiecki).

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The politics of language

Our research covers the philosophy of language (Mathiowetz), framing and preference formation (Pasotti), natural languages and nationalization (Thomas), and ‘race’ as a research concept & theoretical construct, including logics, controversies, politics, and ethics (Verma).

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City politics

Our research on city politics includes topics like mayors and urban branding (Pasotti), cities as global actors and cities and climate governance (Gordon), counties (Verma), decentralization (Eaton), multi-level government (Niedzwiecki), policy devolution (Verma), city councils, neighborhood governance, and accountability (Read), and biological citizenship and politics of space (Sparke).

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Post-colonial theory and nationalist discourse

Our faculty study the Americas and India in British colonial imagination (Seth), populism and elitism in formerly colonized countries (Serres), Orientalism and political identity in the Spanish colonial world (Thomas), colonial and postcolonial law (Massoud), and anti-colonial thought in Arabic-speaking countries, including theories of decolonization (Daifallah).

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Early modern European political thought

Our research interests in this area include the political thought of Thomas Hobbes (Mathiowetz, Seth), the emergence of political-economic discourse (Mathiowetz), and pre-modern and modern notions of selfhood (Seth).

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Informal and trans-local political organization

We study patronage politics in Southern Italy (Pasotti), state-sponsored local associations in China and Taiwan (Read), and human rights and social movements (Massoud, Serres).

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Methodology

Our study of methodology within politics research focuses on archival, qualitative, and ethnographic methods (Massoud, Read), quantitative methods (Springer), mixed methods (Niedzwiecki, Verma), and network analysis (Schoenman).