What attracted you to UGA?
GS: Many things! Athens is a desirable location and UGA has a great reputation as an institution committed to strong teaching and research. 快猫短视频 in particular is on an excellent trajectory and political science is building out their expertise in political behavior, which is what I study. The opportunity to be a part of building that area is really exciting.

What are you working on that you’re most excited about?
GS: Lots of projects. There are a couple of that stand out at the moment though. The first examines how much weight people place on different dimensions of public policies when deciding whether they support or oppose them. For instance, do people judge policies based on who they think benefits from the policy vs. the mechanism used to implement the policy, like cutting taxes.

The other project that I鈥檓 just starting on is a collaborative effort that looks at the content of people鈥檚 beliefs about voter fraud. We allow people to give in-depth open-ended responses after being asked to tell us what they think defines voter fraud. My collaborator and I think we are going to find a lot of depth here, including evidence that people have pretty diverse views about what voter fraud means.

What was your favorite part of your college experience?
GS: Being a part of a diverse community. I was able to grow with a cohort of other students from a variety of backgrounds.

Please tell us about your research interests.
GS: I study American politics and political psychology. In particular, my research examines how people make political decisions and the sources of their beliefs about politics. I also study political parties and polarization.

How do you like to spend your time when you’re not working?
GS: I have an 18-month old son, so most of my free time is spent trying to keep up with him. Otherwise, I enjoy cooking and hiking. I鈥檓 looking forward to exploring outdoor areas around Athens and in Georgia more broadly.

What is your favorite food?
GS: It鈥檚 very hard to pick just one. I really enjoy Vietnamese food, especially Pho.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
GS: It will sound pretty cheesy, but I鈥檓 proud of my son. His growth is due to many people and I鈥檓 happy to have contributed!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
GS: Flight. Anything to avoid waiting for a plane at the airport.

What advice do you have for 快猫短视频 students?
GS: Explore. Take courses that sound interesting to you. Study abroad. Join student organizations. Complete an internship. College is a great opportunity explore your interests and to find out what really drives you.

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Mollie Cohen received her PhD in Political Science from Vanderbilt University. From 2017-2018, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Latin American Public Opinion Project and a postdoctoral researcher with the Trans-Institutional Brazil Health Policy Project. Cohen鈥檚 research focuses on elections, public opinion, voting behavior, and political representation, especially in the Latin American region. She will be teaching Introduction to Comparative Politics this fall.

What attracted you to UGA?

MC: The IA department is a very young and research active environment, and seemed like an exciting 鈥� and very collegial! 鈥� place to work. On top of that, Athens seemed like an awesome place to live.

What are you working on that you’re most excited about?

MC: I鈥檓 currently working on a book manuscript that examines why individuals cast blank and spoiled votes in Latin America and the world. These protest votes are cast at very high rates in some countries 鈥� they often 鈥渂eat鈥� the first-place candidate in legislative elections! 鈥� but scholars have tended to treat them as voter errors. Contrary to much existing scholarship, I find that much invalid voting in presidential elections isn鈥檛 accidental and isn鈥檛 an expression of anti-democratic attitudes. Rather, individuals intentionally invalidate their ballots in protest of the slate of candidates available or the policies those candidates propose. The book also looks at whether and how campaigns promoting invalid voting are successful. While these 鈥渁gainst-all鈥� campaigns receive a lot of news coverage, I find that they are only rarely able to successfully mobilize voters to spoil their votes, and that they are best able to do so when they are led by very popular individuals with a clear and convincing grievance to protest.

What was your favorite part of your college experience?

MC: During my last year at UCSD, I had the opportunity to participate in the Mexican Migration Field Research and Training Program. I went to Mexico and Los Angeles to conduct survey and semi-structured interviews with migrants in the U.S. that came from a small town in Mexico, and with citizens living in that town. That experience convinced me to pursue a career in public opinion: I really enjoyed developing survey questions, interviewing respondents, and writing up the results for publication. It was hard work, but was also extremely gratifying.

Please tell us one fun fact about you.

MC: As a child, I lived in Mr. Roger鈥檚 (actual, real-life) neighborhood. We ran into him on the street.

What are you looking forward to in the coming year?

MC: Working in a place with so much school spirit!!

What is one goal you have for yourself for the next year?

MC: To run my tenth half marathon.

Do you have any pets? If so, what kind(s)?

MC: Yes! My dog Nelson is a Boston Lab (a black lab/ Boston terrier 鈥� at least, that鈥檚 what we think). He鈥檚 a very good boy.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?

MC: Finishing my Ph.D.

Who inspires you in your research or career?

MC: My grandparents, and many strong female mentors.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

MC: To speak any language fluently without studying it.

What advice do you have for 快猫短视频 students?

MC: First, get to know your professors! We are all here in part because we want to interact with you and talk about your ideas and interests. A related bonus is that students who come to office hours perform better in class, without fail.聽Second, take care of yourself! School and your social activities are important, but your physical and mental health are more important.

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As Grafstein explains, Newcomb鈥檚 Problem, also known as Newcomb鈥檚 Paradox, can help us understand why people choose to vote by helping us to view the decision not to vote as a rational choice. He mentions that this is only one of many social scientific applications of the thought experiment, 鈥淣ewcomb鈥檚 Problem isn鈥檛 an esoteric issue鈥� It actually relates to a lot of decisions that we make, including in politics and society, the most notable one being voting but there are lots of other ones as well.鈥�

Grafstein鈥檚 article will be a chapter in a Cambridge University Press book about Newcomb鈥檚 Problem coming out in October.

Another topic Grafstein has been researching gets to the core of recent voting issues in another way. 鈥淭he Problem with Polarization,鈥� recently published in Public Choice, goes deeper into the issue of polarization and extremism in politics. Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal identified this problem in the 1980s, but Grafstein鈥檚 paper attempts to explain exactly why polarization is an issue today.

鈥淧olarization itself is not a problem as long as people can put aside their beliefs and shake hands at some point. But we鈥檙e seeing polarization that leads to extremism and dysfunctional politics, which is why it has become a problem,鈥� Grafstein explains.

What Grafstein has found is that income is an important source of the polarization that leads to extremist beliefs. This is rather groundbreaking considering extremist beliefs are often referred to by the media as the result of psychological or genetic issues. But as Grafstein explains, 鈥�20 percent of Trump voters voted for Obama, so it鈥檚 highly unlikely that those people just 鈥榮napped鈥� between elections. Rather, they鈥檙e making a tradeoff. People do not become polarized as a result of some psychological or genetic issue, they become polarized based on their reaction to risk related to their income.鈥�

So according to Grafstein, politics is a risky endeavor, but it鈥檚 more risky for people at the economic poles which is what leads to political polarization. People on the low end of the economic spectrum have a lot to gain compared to the risk of having their income drastically reduced. People on the high end of the economic spectrum risk losing their fortunes. This risk pushes people at the economic poles toward the political poles.

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As a Georgia native, Bullock is interested in the oversized role Georgia has played with regard to developing the law on redistricting. A number of the leading cases have come out of Georgia, going back 50-60 years. In the early 1970s a Georgia case asserted that redistricting was allowed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The State of Georgia argued against this, saying the Voting Rights Act dealt only with registering and voting, not drawing district lines. But, in 1973 the Supreme Court decided that the Voting Rights Act did allow redistricting.

The main reason to redraw districts, since it began in 1962, is because districts need to have the same amount of residents in them. Every district needs 鈥淓qual population — one person one vote鈥� when it comes to congressional districts. But of course, opening the door to redrawing districts also meant opening the door to potential manipulation and gerrymandering.

According to Bullock, 鈥淕errymandering, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.鈥� There are various measures but courts have never outlined what exactly constitutes gerrymandering. If a district looks strange, the party drawing it might be asked to defend its odd shape but as long as they give a reason other than the race of the constituents, they are often in the clear. Creating a gerrymander while trying to keep residents of the same political party together is currently allowed, and is referred to as partisan gerrymandering or political gerrymandering.

Although the Supreme Court has created a standard limiting the role that race can play in drawing district lines, so far it has not been able to devise a system for partisan gerrymandering. Back in February the Supreme Court refused to decide in two cases of partisan gerrymandering, in Maryland and Wisconsin. However, the legality of the partisan gerrymander could change in the next year or so.

There is another case of political gerrymandering in North Carolina, set to be heard by the Supreme Court next year. It鈥檚 highly unlikely that anyone selected by President Trump will be as hard to predict as Justice Kennedy. Since Justice Kennedy鈥檚 belief that there is a formula out there that can solve partisan gerrymandering was the main reason the Supreme Court didn鈥檛 reach a conclusion, whereas the other Conservative Judges believe partisan gerrymandering is not a Supreme Court issue, it鈥檚 likely that the Kennedy鈥檚 replacement will be the deciding factor in the gerrymandering issue.

Whether the Court decides partisan redistricting is not justiciable or they decide to come up with a test for partisan gerrymandering, their decision will drastically alter the political landscape.

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What attracted you to UGA?
RP: UGA and 快猫短视频 were attractive for a host of reasons, but the high caliber of the students and the exciting research being produced by faculty all across 快猫短视频 are among the most attractive features to me. Getting to work with such amazing students and colleagues in a town as great as Athens is a wonderful bonus as well.

Where did you grow up?
RP: I grew up in Virginia about an hour west of Washington, DC.

What are your research interests?
RP: Broadly, I am interested in how domestic politics affects international relations and vice versa. I study the conditions under which the public is willing to embrace economic openness and international cooperation more broadly. 聽I am also interested in the relationship between IR scholars and the policy community. With funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, my colleagues at the College of William and Mary and I are studying how policy makers consume social science research and how social science research is communicated to both the public and policy makers.

How do you like to spend your time when you’re not working?
RP: Lately, I鈥檝e had fun exploring the Athens area with my wife and son. I like to fly fish as well, so I am looking forward to exploring some of the trout streams in North Georgia. 聽

What is your favorite food?
RP: I am not sure that I have a favorite food, but I鈥檝e been quite taken by the chips and pico at Cali and Tito鈥檚 since moving to Athens!

Please tell us one fun fact about you.
RP: I was born just outside of Atlanta. While my family moved away before I was old enough to remember, I can technically say this was a move 鈥渂ack鈥� to Georgia.

What is one goal you have for yourself for the next year?
RP: I鈥檇 like to run a half marathon in the coming year.

Do you have any pets? If so, what kind(s)?
RP: I have a Jack Russell terrier named Maddie. She is a ball of energy.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
RP: Be able to see 5 or 10 minutes into the future. Just enough foresight to be useful!

What advice do you have for 快猫短视频 students?
RP: Get involved! Go to talks, join clubs, take advantage of all that university life has to offer. For undergrads with an eye towards graduate school, look for opportunities to assist faculty with their research. It will give you a better sense of what it is like to be an academic.

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There are three ways that committees can stop voting: a majority vote to adjourn, a fixed time period, or when the committee chair decides to adjourn. Some strands of economic theory suggest that committees will reach the same outcome regardless of how voting stops. However, after an experiment simulating the different adjournment options, Dougherty and his team found that isn鈥檛 necessarily true.

They reached these results by setting up a spatial voting game in the Candler Lab. Each experimental subject was randomly assigned to a computer and was given an ideal point, the point that would give the subject their greatest payoff, representing the maximum they could be paid in the space. Subjects received payment incrementally based off of the results their committee reached, the closer it was to their ideal point, the higher the payoff. Dougherty and his team ran several of these voting games and alternated the method of adjourning to compare the results.

Dougherty found that a vote by the majority to adjourn resulted in similar results as voting during a fixed time period. However, he and his team found that allowing the chair to decide when to adjourn resulted in a longer voting process and voting conclusions closer to what the chair wanted. From this finding, Dougherty concludes, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 interesting is it鈥檚 the power to have adjournment that gives the chair power.鈥�

In addition, Dougherty is working on a research project that explores what made delegates successful at the Constitutional Convention. He is examining different factors including how well the delegates were socially networked, how much they argued on various votes, and the size of their state, among other factors.

Dougherty is also organizing 快猫短视频鈥檚 2018 Constitution Day celebration, on September 17th.

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鈥淲e found that there is an electoral incentive across time, since the beginning of the nation. In fact, it was almost as strong at some points in the nineteenth century as it is today. Because members of Congress write the rules, they can design a system to sort of advantage themselves. And from Day One that鈥檚 essentially what they did.鈥�

But Carson doesn鈥檛 see this as a bad thing, he explains by quoting Madison, 鈥溾�楢mbition must be made to counteract ambition,鈥� if you really want people to be responsive, you have to make an incentive for them to be responsive.鈥� The promise of re-election serves as an incentive for members of Congress to be responsive to their constituents.

However, Carson doesn鈥檛 believe that this conclusion means everything in Congress is perfect. He believes we still have other issues to iron out. 鈥淚鈥檇 say money is a much bigger problem today than the fact that members care about re-election.鈥�

Earlier this year, Jamie Carson also published the 2016 election edition of Change and Continuity, a long-standing series that is published after every major election to illuminate the results. Carson served as a research assistant on the 1998, 2000, and 2002 versions while he was in graduate school. When he was asked to co-author the newest edition, he was excited to get back to his roots while analyzing such an interesting election.

Change and Continuity includes chapters on the fall campaign, analyses of the election results, and explanations and analysis of legislative actions and behavior leading up to the election. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 neat about this book is that it鈥檚 the first synthesis of systematic data that analyzes what happened. It looks at an aggregate of election returns but also analyzes survey evidence to figure out why the voters picked this group of candidates and what it ultimately means for the larger system.鈥�

鈥淭rying to put 2016 into context was a challenge,鈥� Carson reflects. 鈥淏ut, the more we analyzed this election, the more it looked like past elections. There鈥檚 an unusual outcome but the same groups of people that would typically vote for a Republican, voted for Trump. It鈥檚 not like he attracted more blue collar workers, which was the understanding, or women fled from him–that didn鈥檛 happen either. It was the same patterns, but just a little more stark.鈥�

Carson is hoping that people will read Change and Continuity and realize that what they thought they knew about the election is significantly more nuanced. He will start working on the next edition of Change and Continuity after the 2018 midterm elections. Carson will also be presenting a paper on congressional primary elections at the American Political Science Association Meeting in Boston this year.

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