Meredith Barthelemy is a third-year graduate student in American politics. With a background in American political development, her research focuses on presidential and congressional relations. Her current research projects include looking at the evolution of presidential negotiation with Congress, specifically bluffing between members of Congress and the president during the legislative process, and the effect of increased polarization on presidential and congressional relations.
Aaron King [Contact]
Aaron is a first-year PhD student focusing on American Politics and Methodology. He is particularly interested in both presidential and congressional elections, but also in political institutions. Aaron graduated from Michigan State University in 2007 with a degree in Political Science and Geography.
Jacob Montgomery [Contact] [CV]
Jacob Montgomery is a third-year graduate student in American politics.
His dissertation research seeks to understand the relationship between
elites and individuals in fostering political participation. Other
research projects include studies of the the role of habit strength in
turnout, Bayesian statistics, and campaign donors.
Brendan Nyhan [Contact] [Website]
Brendan Nyhan is a fifth-year graduate student in American politics and a PIPC fellow. His dissertation research seeks to understand the causes of political scandal. Other research projects include studies of the correction of political misperceptions, social networks in Congressional member-to-member giving, Bayesian model averaging, and the effects of verification threat in message framing.
Frank Orlando [Contact]
Frank is a first year PhD student studying American Politics and Methods. He is interested in congress, congressional elections, and representation. Frank graduated from Michigan State University in May, 2007 with a degree in Political Science and Geography.
Brittany Perry [Contact]
Brittany is a first-year graduate student studying American Politics and
Methods. Her current research interests include Congress, voting behavior,
and immigration policy. Her undergraduate honors thesis analyzed congressional specialization tendencies with a focus on immigration policy. Brittany received her BA in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder in May 2007.
Jill Rickershauser [Contact] [Website]
Jill studies political behavior, voting, campaigns, and elections. Her dissertation, Learning Curves: Three Studies on Political Information Acquisition, is a collection of articles that investigate pathways of information acquisition among three groups--the politically sophisticated, the potentially sophisticated, and the unsophisticated. Her research draws on existing scholarship in economics and finance, sociology, and psychology in addition to political science and uses very different methodologies to investigate these central questions in political behavior. Originally from Boston, she is really enjoying the city’s sports renaissance.
David Sparks [Contact] [Website]
David is a second-year student focusing on American olitics and Methodology, with more specific interests in Congress, political parties, issue evolution, voter decisiong-making, and the novel application of statistical methods to political questions. David received his BA in 2006 from Vanderbilt University, double-majoring in Political Science and Economics.