Welcome!
I am an Assistant Professor of comparative politics at the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. I received my Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2016. From 2017-2018, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at LAPOP. In fall 2023, I will join the Political Science department at Purdue University.
I study elections, public opinion, voting behavior, and political representation, especially in Latin America. Much of my work examines how democratic crises and features of election administration affect citizens' attitudes, as well as their decisions at the ballot box. My forthcoming book, None of the Above: Protest Voting in Latin American Democracies, examines how democratic backsliding fuels the emergence and success of campaigns promoting blank or spoiled votes. Some of my work also develops methods to improve the measurement of political phenomena in surveys.
My research is published or forthcoming at the American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, and Public Opinion Quarterly, among other outlets, and has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation. I have also written several reports as part of LAPOP's Insights series and contributed to The Monkey Cage Blog and Mischiefs of Faction.
Please click here for a copy of my CV, and here to contact me.
Photo credit: Kristen Hewett Hazelton
Mollie J. Cohen