News

Professor Scheiner’s latest book, Freedom to Win, makes the University of California’s “Notable UC books of 2024" list

Political Science Professor & Co-Chair Ethan Scheiner’s latest book, Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team That Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People—And Olympic Gold, was one of just eight nonfiction books listed among the University of California’s “Notable UC books of 2024,” which highlights “some of the year’s most critically acclaimed works, including National Book Award winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestsellers and Oprah picks, all from UC alums or faculty.”

Undergrad Alumna Sarah Finkel Finishes White House Internship

UC Davis Political Science undergrad alumna Sarah Finkel spent much of 2024 working as a White House intern in the Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. This office was created by President Biden in 2022 to manage and oversee the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act -- the largest climate law in the nation's history. Sarah reports "I had a wonderful experience getting to learn from experts in the clean energy field, see first-hand how policy is implemented at the federal level, and interact with climate leaders across the federal government and the world.

PhD alumni Carlos Algara's and Jonathan Colner's models correctly forecast Trump taking the electoral college and popular vote

PhD alumni Carlos Algara (Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University) and Jonathan Colner (Faculty Fellow, NYU) each co-authored an article as part a PS: Political Science & Politics journal symposium on the 2024 presidential election. Their models were the only ones in the symposium to correctly forecast former President Trump taking both the electoral college and popular vote.

PhD student Menglin (Miley) Liu launches new large language model (LLM) python package

PhD candidate Miley Liu recently launched a python package called PoliPrompt that streamlines the process of text classification using LLMs, addressing some of the key limitations researchers face in this domain. PoliPrompt uses automatic prompt optimization to significantly improve the accuracy and scalability of LLM classification tasks while reducing the manual effort required from researchers. You can find the package on PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/PoliPrompt/

Associate Prof Josephine Andrews and PhD candidate Yu-Shiuan Huang have published their work in Party Politics

Professor Josephine Andrews and PhD candidate Yu-Shiuan Huang have co-authored an article, “Winners, Losers, and Affective Polarization,” in Party Politics. They analyze the winner-loser gap in affective polarization and find that winners’ affective polarization is significantly greater than losers’, and the difference is due to winners’ consistently higher in-party favoritism. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13540688241292556

Prof Brandon Kinne and recent PhD Nahrain Bet Younadem publish research on verbal attacks and extremist violence in PNAS Nexus

Professor Brandon Kinne and recent PhD Dr. Nahrain Bet Younadem, along with coauthor Iliyan Iliev, recently published an article in the journal PNAS Nexus examining whether verbal attacks by governments on violent extremist groups deter or exacerbate violence. They find that while verbal attacks seem intended to deter extremists, they are actually often followed by increases in violent attacks. They argue that this pattern is driven by a credibility deficit, as extremists use violence to signal that they have the capabilities and willingness to inflict harm.