New Hires and Appointments
We are delighted to welcome Averell Schmidt (IR), Sarah Thompson (CP), and Amanda Weiss (PM) to the faculty. Each of them joined us in 2025.
Bryn Rosenfeld received tenure in the department in February 2025, Begüm Adalet received tenure in July of 2025, and Jamila Michener became a full professor in 2025.
Oumar Ba was named the Hardis Family Assistant Professor for Teaching Excellence.
Matthew Evangelista was appointed a member of the Committee on International Security Studies of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Books
Peter Katzenstein, Entanglements in World Politics: The Power of Uncertainty (Cambridge University Press) 2025.
Sarah Kreps, and Douglas Kriner (eds.). 2025. Checking the Costs of War: Sources of Accountability in Post-9/11 US Foreign Policy. University of Chicago Press.
Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown (Cornell PhD 2025). Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide that Threatens Democracy (Princeton University Press). 2025. See interview on the Ezra Klein Show, New York Times.
Jamila Michener and Mallory E. SoRelle Uncivil Democracy: How Access to Justice Shapes Political Power (Princeton University Press). 2026.
Isabel Perera, The Welfare Workforce: Why Mental Health Care Varies Across Affluent Democracies (Cambridge University Press). 2025.
Valerie J. Bunce, Thomas Pepinsky, Kenneth M. Roberts, and Rachel Beatty Riedl, eds. Global Challenges to Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Backsliding, Autocracy, and Resiliency (Cambridge University Press). 2025.
Articles and Book Chapters
Talbot M. Andrews and Scott Bokemper (2025). The road to reelection is paved with good intentions: Experiments on the role of outcomes and intentions in voting behavior. Journal of Politics 87(1): 262-274.
David Bateman (2025) “Democracy-Reinforcing Hardball: Can Breaking Democratic Norms Preserve Democratic Values?” Comparative Political Studies.
David Bateman (2025) "Democratization in the USA? The Impact of Suffrage Qualifications on Politics and Policy.” Journal of Politics 87(1): 50-69.
Alexandra Blackman, Aytug Sasmaz, Renu Singh, and Scott Williamson (2025) “Anti-Americanism and Foreign Aid Preferences Among Political Elites: Evidence from Tunisia.”The Review of International Organizations.
Alexandra Blackman, Carolyn Barnett, and Marwa Shalaby (2025). “Competent legislators or mere pawns? Experimental evidence of attitudes toward gender quota politicians.” Political Science Research and Methods.
Alexandra Blackman, Carolyn Barnett, and Marwa Shalaby (2025). “Gender Stereotypes in Electoral Autocracies: Experimental Evidence from Morocco.” Journal of Politics 87(3): 995-1011.
Alexandra Blackman (2025). “Why Resistance to the Executive Power Grab in Tunisia Is Failing.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 712(1): 154-168
Peter K. Enns and Patrick C. Wohlfarth (2025). “When did the Supreme Court stop caring about public opinion?” Los Angeles Times Dec. 4.
Peter K. Enns and Claudia Miner (2025). “How Concern with Government Overregulation and Racial Animus Reshaped the Republican Party and Fueled Trump’s Electoral Appeal.” In The 2024 Presidential Election: Key Issues and Regional Dynamics, eds. Luke Perry. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan
Peter K. Enns, Will Jennings, John Kenny, Andra Roescu, Stuart Smedley, Kathleen Weldon (2025). “Revealing long-term trajectories of public opinion and polling in Britain: a new resource of historical data from the Gallup Poll in Britain, 1955-1991.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties.
Aaron Childree, Hyein Yang, and Douglas Kriner (2025). “Legal Constraint through Political Means? Legal Foundations and Public Support for Executive Action.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization.
Kenneth M. Roberts, Valerie J. Bunce, Thomas Pepinsky, and Rachel Beatty Riedl (2025). “Global Challenges to Democracy: Backsliding, Resiliency, and Democratic Theory,” Bunce, Pepinsky, Riedl, and Roberts, eds., Global Challenges to Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Backsliding, Autocracy, and Resilience (Cambridge University Press, 2025), pp. 7-31.
Rachel Beatty Riedl, Jennifer McCoy, Kenneth M. Roberts, and Murat Somer (2025). “Pathways of Democratic Backsliding, Resistance, and (Partial) Recoveries, in Democratic Backsliding:” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 712(1), 8-31
Rachel Beatty Riedl, Paul Friesen, Jennifer McCoy, and Kenneth M. Roberts (2025). “Democratic Backsliding, Resilience, and Resistance” World Politics 77, 1 (Supplement 2025): 151-178.
Sarah Thompson, Saad Gulzar, Durgesh Pathak, and Aliz Tóth (2025). “Can Party Elites Shape the Rank and File? Evidence from a Recruitment Campaign in India.” American Political Science Review 119(2): 812–31.
Amanda Weiss, “Beyond Retraumatization: Trauma-Informed Political Science Research.” 2025, British Journal of Political Science 55: e82 1-25.
Awards, Grants, Fellowships, Projects
Begum Adalet became a Ford Foundation Fellow in the Scholars-in-Residence Fellowship Program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. She also received Cornell’s Robert and Helen Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists, which recognizes and rewards faculty excellence.
Oumar Ba received a senior fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Studes: Reflexive Globalization and the Law (ReFlex) at Humboldt University, Berlin.
Peter K. Enns, along with Judy Zhong (PI), Rainu Kaushal (MPI), Conor Liston (MPI), and Chris Forrest (PEDSnet PI) were awarded a National Institutes of Health Grant ($5,097,000) to develop the “AR2 – Autism Replication, Validation, and Reproducibility Center”
Matthew Evangelista edited (with Neta Crawford) a special issue of its journal Daedalus on How Has War Shaped American Democracy? (Fall 2025).
Matthew Evangelista’s article titled “A ‘Nuclear Umbrella’ for Ukraine? Precents and Possibilities for Postwar European Security” won Best Security Article Award. Read it here.
Jason Frank was awarded a residential research fellowship in the School of Social Science at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton in support of his new book project “The Democratic Theory of Counterrevolution.”
Suzanne Mettler was awarded a Visiting Scholar Fellowship at the Russell Sage Foundation for Spring 2027.
Sabrina Karim was award the prestigious Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Belin.
Bryn Rosenfeld received a provisional National Research Competition award from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research for “A Panel Study of Support for Putin and His War.” This award would fund a continuation of the four-wave panel survey, spanning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, of which she is the Principal Investigator. The award is provisional given uncertainty in the drawdown authority for Title VIII programs.
Student Successes
Grace Beals won the National Institute for Social Sciences Dissertation Grant and has a forthcoming article, "Credit and Crises: How Fringe Credit Changes the Effect of Emergency Policies," in Policy Studies Journal.
Taylor Carroll won a Health Policy Research Scholar Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Frances Cayton has accepted a position as the Einstein-Moos Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule Of Law for 2026-27 AY, before starting as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina in Fall 2027.
Harry Dienes' research was released as a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, which experimentally shows civil servants' demand for building their own capability increases with perceived norms of autonomy.
Thomas Gareau-Paquette won the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship; Institute for European Studies (Einaudi Center) Research Grant; Research Stay Fellowship (Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality, University of Konstanz); Kohut Fellowship, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
Dayra Lascano received a grant from the Cornell Qualitative and Interpretative Research Center (QuIRI) for her project “Misson Timing and Recommendation Politics in OAS Monitoring.”
Samuel Lui was awarded the Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics & Statecraft Fellowship ($10,000, 2025-2026); the Institute for Humane Studies Expense Support Grant ($1,500); Graduate School Research Travel Grant; Lee Teng-Hui Fellowship from the East Asia Program (EAP).
Lois Matthew won the Institute for African Development Grant (IAD) PhD Field Research Grant; Einaudi Travel Grant for Graduate Student Research; APSA 2025 Spring Centennial Center Research Grant.
Avishai Melemed won the CCSS QuIRI Research Grant for 2026 for his project “Reinventing Innovation: International Competition and U.S. Federal Funding for Research and Development"
Palbo Scuticchio won a Graduate Student Research Grant from the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures at Cornell University.
