Political Science

Fred Davis Fred Davis, who served as a media strategist for both George W. Bush and John McCain, will be the second guest in the three-part Election Event Series being sponsored by the Department of Political Science, the First Amendment Center, the… Read More

Mitt Romney can still win the presidential election if he can convince Americans he has the best plan to reinvigorate the economy, according to analysis by Vanderbilt professor John Geer of two new ads released by Romney’s campaign. Read More

There now is only a small and ever dwindling chance that the remaining undecided voters might influence the outcome of the presidential election, said a Vanderbilt University political scientist. Read More

Watch video from the September 21 Lunch and Learn event with John Geer. John Geer, chair of political science, spoke on “Negativity and the 2012 Presidential Campaign: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” This presidential campaign will be the most negative in modern history. Geer argued why that is… Read More

Saturday University, designed to help adults rediscover the joy of education, will focus on the November elections during sessions Oct. 13 and 20. Read More

Barsky (Vanderbilt) Robert Barsky, professor of French and Italian and professor of English, will deliver “The Changing Role of the Public Intellectual: From the Buildup Toward World War II to the Occupy Movement,” the 10th Annual Elizabeth Killam Rodgers and Constance Killam Distinguished Public Lecture, as part of the… Read More

A tradition among first-year students to read and discuss a common text has inspired a campuswide initiative called “Human Identities: Global, Local, Personal,” designed to raise nuanced dialogue about gender and sexuality across the Vanderbilt community. Read More

The latest political ad to be rated by the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows former president Bill Clinton doing a better job of rallying Democratic voters to re-elect President Obama than the president himself. Read More

One of Mitt Romney’s latest campaign commercials against President Barack Obama seems to be hitting a nerve among independent voters, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows. Read More

Positive ads from President Obama won't get the job done of defeating challenger Mitt Romney in the presidential race, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project continues to suggest. Read More

Nearly a third of American voters finds a new ‘positive’ ad by President Obama contrasting his approach to the economy with that of Mitt Romney to be 'disgusting.' Read More

Voter reaction to campaign advertisements by the presidential candidates will be evaluated this fall through a partnership between Vanderbilt University and YouGov, a prominent research firm. Read More

The flag of the Dominican Republic (Paul Stein) One of the most important factors influencing citizens to participate actively in political campaigns in the Americas is education, according to a survey conducted by Vanderbilt University. “Working for a political party or campaign is uncommon,” the researchers wrote in a… Read More

This year a record number of Vanderbilt Graduate School students have won prestigious National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships. Read More

The latest Vanderbilt poll shows Republican Mitt Romney firmly in position to win the state of Tennessee in the presidential election in November. Read More

The latest Vanderbilt Poll shows that there is a divide between the priorities of state lawmakers and the citizens they serve. Read More

How the media covers campaign advertising can influence election results. Associate professor and co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Josh Clinton explains his research on the 2004 “swift boat” ads and how media coverage impacted the election. Read More

Withholding aid from governments with a reputation for corruption can have a "vicious cycle" effect that makes it very difficult for them to progress, according to analysis from the 2010 AmericasBarometer survey by The Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University. Read More

Vanderbilt's Larry Bartels and Randolph Blake were elected to the National Academy of Sciences, which advises the government on science and technology. Read More

The responsibilities of family life tend to impede political participation by women in the Americas, a new study from the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University shows. Read More