Liberal Arts Expertise Around Politics 2020: Campaigns, Elections, and Beyond

2020 Election: Research Insights

• Hubbard School faculty members and graduate students study many topics that connect to the upcoming election: celebrity candidates, libel law, polling, political ad spending, misinformation & many others. Watch the videos for brief insights & learn more.

Danielle Kilgo, John & Elizabeth Bates Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity and Equality

Expertise: News media’s and media audiences’ contribution to uneven power dynamics and diversity issues in society

• Recommendations for media covering the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election (Election Coverage and Democracy Network)

Claire M. Segijn, assistant professor

Expertise: Synced advertising, Multiscreening, Media Multitasking, Attention, Advertising effects, Information processing and memory

• Thinking, Knowing, or Thinking You Know: The Relationship Between Multiscreening and Political Learning (Sage Journals) - Abstract only: paid subscription required for full article

Christopher Terry, assistant professor

Expertise: Policy, regulatory and legal analysis of media ownership, media content, and political advertising

• Broadcasters can't sensor campaign ads (KARE11)
• Hagedorn, DJ deal could draw FCC inquiry (Mankato Free Press)
• (KSTP)KTOE takes DJ with Hagedorn ties off air (Mankato Free Press)
• What political ad spending says about the state of Minnesota’s biggest races (MinnPost)
• Minnesota is still a battleground state — just not in the presidential election (MinnPost)

Benjamin J Toff, assistant professor

Expertise: Public opinion and polling, News audiences, Political communication, Political engagement

• The ‘Nate Silver Effect’ Is Changing Journalism. Is That Good? (Politico)
• What can “folk theories of journalism” tell us about why some people don’t trust us? (Neiman Lab)
• Recommendations for Media Covering the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election (Election Coverage and Democracy Network)
• The fate of the Fourth Estate (CLA)

Emily K. Vraga, Don and Carole Larson Professorship in Health Communication

Expertise: How individuals respond to news and information about contentious health, scientific, and political issues in digital environments

• Mail-in voting, police protests create fertile ground for disinformation in Minnesota (Star Tribune)
• Expert Alert: The science of debunking misinformation (The University of Minnesota)

Chris Federico, professor political science and psychology, and director of the Center for the Study of Political Psychology

Expertise: Nature of ideology and belief systems, the psychological foundations of political preferences, and intergroup attitudes

• Most Americans experiencing significant election stress. Here's how to cope (NBC Today)

Paul Goren, professor and department chair

Expertise: Relationship between basic human values, public opinion, and symbolic ideology; how opinion on moral issues shape partisan and religious predispositions over time; and how welfare opinions reinforce racial prejudices

• Do presidential debates persuade voters? Good Question (CBS-Local)

Timothy Johnson, professor

Expertise: Supreme Court oral arguments and decision making, the evolution of the norm of respecting precedent in US Courts, executive/judiciary relations, judicial politics, American politics

• Power Up: Democrats hope Ginsburg’s passing will galvanize youth vote on reproductive rights (Washington Post)
• Trump weighs three women for the high court; all would push the law to the right (Los Angeles Times)
• Pandemic means a silent June at SCOTUS (AP)

Howard Lavine, professor and associate dean for social sciences

Expertise: Psychological underpinnings of mass political behavior, human rights, populism, partisan asymmetries, and the intersection of race and political context on public opinion

• When party loyalty is stronger than a person’s values or beliefs (MinnPost) 
• How Americans understand human eights in a Populist moment (CLA)
• The politics of loyalty (CLA)

Michael Minta, associate professor

Expertise: Congressional politics, race and ethnic politics, interest group advocacy

• Racial issues and the Trump-Biden contest: U of M panel explores the dynamics (MNPost)
• The Ballot Count of 2020: An Election Night Preview (Almanac)

August Nimtz, associate professor

Expertise: Marxism, political economy, politics of race, class & ethnicity, and African politics

• Campus unrest and the politics of law and order (part 2) (Dialogue Minnesota)

Kathryn Pearson, associate professor

Expertise: American politics, US Congress, women and politics, Congressional elections and political behavior, US political parties

• Politics In The Age Of COVID-19 (Dialogue Minnesota)
• Minnesota's Legal Marijuana Now Party congressional candidate dies; election for 2nd District postponed (Pioneer Press)
• Republicans aim to flip blue-dog Democrat's House seat (BusinessWeek)
• Across state and on both sides, Minnesotans overwhelmingly are voting absentee (StarTribune)
• Women in Minneapolis suburbs have 'critical' role in 2020 election (ABC News)    
• The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress: Conversation on Congressional Staffing (YouTube)
• Women's role in U.S. politics explored in U of M event (MinnPost)
• The Ballot Count of 2020: An Election Night Preview (Almanac)

Christopher Uggen, professor 

Expertise: Crime, law, justice; life course; inequality; methods; policy

• Whether or Not You’re Able to Vote in Jail May Come Down to Where You're Incarcerated (Time)