News

Update: Restrictive New Voting Laws in the States

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University In 2022, my colleagues and I published our book Much Sound a Fury or the New Jim Crow? The Twenty First Century’s Restrictive New Voting Laws in the States, with SUNY Press.  The project began when we met and formed a…


Fascinating Findings: Health & Politics at MPSA 2024

By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Political science is a discipline that often focuses on topics related to elections, institutions, and the mass public. As populism rises across the globe and the US public continues to show high levels of distrust toward…


The Challenge of Teaching in an AI World

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University The first day of #MPSA2024 is in the books, and it’s gotten off to a strong start.  All panels I attended today were well-attended and thought provoking.  I wrapped up my workday by attending an excellent panel on…


From Nerves to Knockout: Essential Tips for Conference Presentations

By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign MPSA is almost here, and many conference participants are eagerly preparing their slides and presentations for another exciting year in Chicago. If you’re like me, I’m excited to attend MPSA, present my work to a new…


#MPSA2024– This Is My Why

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University Our world and our lives today are filled with all sorts of communications technology, making it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to meet up with people from all over the world without physically traveling…


Do Values Affect Issue Stances? Evidence from Panel Studies

By: Arjun Vishwanath, Vanderbilt University The following blog post is a summary of the research that won the Midwest Political Science Association’s Best Paper in American Politics Award for research presented at the 2023 MPSA Annual Conference.   Voters’ issue stances are central to…


What are the local impacts of unauthorized Mexican migration in the United States?

By: Ernesto Tiburcio and Kara Ross Camarena The following blog post is a summary of the research that co-won the Midwest Political Science Association’s Best Paper in Political Behavior Award for research presented at the 2023 MPSA Annual Conference. The award recognizes the best paper on the topic…


The Rise of New Trade Coalitions Under Global Value Chains

By: Hao Zhang The following blog post is a summary of the research that won the Midwest Political Science Association’s Best Paper in International Relations Award for research presented at the 2023 MPSA Annual Conference. The award recognizes the best paper on the topic of international……


Introducing “Parties, Politics, Peace: Electoral Inclusion as Peacebuilding”

by Carrie Manning, Ian O. Smith, Ozlem Tuncel The notion of liberal peacebuilding, the prevailing approach to international intervention to end civil war in the decades after the Cold War’s end, has fallen out of favor of late. But for the last thirty years, international peacebuilding efforts have…


U.S. States are Trying Political Scientist-Approved Voting Reforms. How's It Going?

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University Most U.S. elections use plurality voting, in which the single candidate winning the most votes is elected, even if they fall short of a majority.  If the election is partisan, chances are that the finalists were chosen in…