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David S. Brown

Discussion Facilitator

David S. Brown, divisional dean, social sciences, professor of political science 

His work centers on political institutions and their impact on economic development. His specific focus is on democracy and its impact on economic growth and development. He is working on a text book Introduction to Statistics in R: the Art & Practice of Data Analysis. Other work includes a book project on democracy and economic growth along, and a forthcoming article with Erin Huebert in Political Research Quarterly on due process and homicide rates. David is also divisional dean for social science and dean for buildings and space in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Panelists

Ken Bickers

Ken Bickers, chair, Political Science Department

John Griffin

His current research is progressing on a number of fronts. In one, he is focusing on the consequences of devolution of federal policy activities to states and local communities. This stream of research includes the impact of federal spending on choices made by local governments to engage in forms of cooperation and non-cooperation, as well as the relationship between interlocal cooperation and electoral politics within metropolitan areas. In the second, he is studying he campaigns and elections of candidates for local offices. This research, referred to as the Local Government Elections Project, is an ongoing investigation of the recruitment and campaigns of local office holders who populate local and state offices. The third stream of research is an exploration of the relationship between residential mobility and local politics. 

John Griffin, director, Conference on World Affairs, professor of political science

Anand Sokhey

He specializes in the study of political equality within American political institutions, especially the U.S. Congress. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, the Annual Review of Political Science, and other volumes. Griffin is the author of two books with the University of Chicago Press: Minority Report: Evaluating Political Equality in America (with Brian Newman) and Why Parties Matter: Electoral Competition and Democracy in the American South (with John Aldrich).

Anand Sokhey, director, Keller Center, associate professor of political science

He joined the CU faculty in 2009 after receiving his PhD from The Ohio State University. Anand specializes in American politics, and his research examines how formal and informal political conversations, interpersonal networks, and environments—whether defined in terms of organizations or geographic boundaries—independently and interactively shape opinion formation and decision-making.  His research intersects with scholarship on communication, gender, religion and politics and political psychology, and much of it is characterized by original data collection.  He is the co-author of  (2019, Oxford University Press), and his work has appeared in the APSR, AJPS and JOP, among other outlets.  He currently serves as the director of the Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment, and is a faculty fellow at the . 

Jennifer Wolak, professor political science

Wolak (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004) joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder in 2004. Her research interests include political psychology and public opinion. She has published work in the British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and Political Behavior, among others. Her current research projects concern the consequences of emotions in politics, the roots of attitudinal ambivalence, and the effects of campaign intensity on learning and judgment.

Potential Topics Include:

What did Colorado learn when it went to mail-in ballots that might be helpful to other states?

Are there previous elections in the U.S. or elsewhere that might help us understand what happens to voting when uncertainty regarding the process increases?

Are there particular states or part of the country that are particularly susceptible to affecting a smooth election process?

In the weeks leading up to the election, what signs will you be looking for to predict if things will go smoothly?

How does a polarized electorate complicate the process?