University of Georgia

The Department of Political Science hosts several speakers each year to give thought-provoking talks on various research topics. Below are listed speakers for the current academic year as well as speakers that we have hosted in the past.

Additionally, Dr. L. Jason Anastasopoulos (Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy) and Dr. Joseph Ornstein (Assistant Professor of Political Science) host the SPIA Methods Colloquium, featuring methods talks from SPIA faculty and graduate students, as well as outside speakers.

2025-26 Political Science Speaker Series

Talks TBA

UPCOMING SPIA Methods Colloquium Speakers:

We are done for Spring 25. Future speakers for Fall 25 will be added here when known.

PAST SPEAKERS
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  • Dr. Tiffany Barnes (University of Kentucky) Where are all the women? Legal careers, political careers, and the leaky pipeline of women to office in the United States.
  • Dr. Greg Bovitz (CEO, Bovitz, Inc.) Who’s Taking Your Survey? An Inside Look at Online Panels
  • Dr. Chelsea Coe (University of California, Merced)
  • Dr. Chiara Cordelli (University of Chicago) Why is Mercenarism Wrong?
  • Dr. Jason Davis (Florida State University) Targeted Sanctions and Redistribution. [SPIA Methods Colloquium]
  • Dr. Bernard Fraga (Emory University) Reversion to the Mean, or their Version of the Dream? An Analysis of Latino Voting in 2020.
  • Dr. Greg Goelzhauser (Utah State University) The Constitutionality of Police Shootings. 
  • Dr. Mark Graber (University of Maryland Carey School of Law) Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment: Our Questions, Their Answers.
  • Dr. Jennifer Merolla (University of California, Riverside) Bridging Political Divides: Can Values Messages Decrease Shape Affective Polarization and Support for Compromise?
  • Dr. Rebecca Reid (University of Texas at El Paso) Does Familiarity Matter? The Effect of Exposure to Indigenous Issues and Federal Indian Law on Judicial Decisions.
  • Dr. David Vinson (24-7 Intouch)
PAST SPIA METHODS COLLOQUIUM SPEAKERS
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  • Dr. David Cottrell (Assistant Professor of Political Science) Incumbent Pairings in the 2021 Redistricting Cycle
  • Dr. Keith Dougherty (Professor of Political Science) and Emma Bibina (UGA PhD student) Pivotal Voters at the U.S. Constitutional Convention: Shapley-Owen Values Reconsidered
  • Dr. Kosuke Imai (Harvard University) Does AI Help Humans Make Better Decisions?: A Methodological Framework for Experimental Evaluation.
  • Dr. George Krause (Professor of Public Administration and Policy) The Loyalty Premium: How Insecure Senate Partisan Majorities Constrain Presidential Appointment Powers
  • Dr. Zachary Peskowitz (Emory University) How Well Do Voting Choice Policies Represent Public and Investor Preferences?
  • Dr. Carlisle Rainey (Florida State University) Power Rules: Practical Statistical Power Calculations.
  • Gabriel Soyer (UGA PhD Student) Access to Rural Credit as Non-Programmatic Politics: Municipal Elections in Brazil.
  • Dr. Michelle Torres (UCLA) Beyond Prediction: Identifying Latent Treatments in Images
  • Dr. Garrett Vande Kamp (Assistant Professor of Political Science) Time Series Made Easy.
  • Megan Wall (UGA PhD Student) Opt-in or Opt-out? Automatic Voter Registration Method and The Implications for Voter Participation.
  • Dr. Laura Zimmermann (Associate Professor of International Affairs) A Multi-Modal Approach to Estimating Prevalence: The Case of Labor Trafficking.

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