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Doctoral Student
American Politics

• Fields of Study

  • Public opinion & political behavior, Political communication, Political psychology, Research design

• About

  Nathan finished his Ph.D. in American politics at the University of Michigan this summer. He is currently a Research Fellow in Political Communication at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs for the next academic year. His work has been accepted for publication at Public Opinion Quarterly and Political Behavior.

  His dissertation investigates how campaign messages interact with audience personality traits to influence political behavior, focusing on violent metaphors and trait aggression. These two factors combine to shape electoral participation, vote choice, and violent attitudes. This work utilizes two national survey experiments, content analysis of presidential campaigns since 1932, and fifty years of ANES survey analysis.

  Other projects include a reappraisal of ideological identification (with Don Kinder), and intergroup aggression in the United States, Israel, and India (with Josh Gubler).

• Education

  • University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.A. in Political Science, Journalism

• Grants

  • American National Election Study, 2012 EGSS-5 Survey Module (Trait Aggression)
  • Rackham Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2012
  • National Science Foundation, Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS), Data Collection Grant, 2010
  • Gerald R. Ford Fellowship & Research Grant, University of Michigan, 2010-11

• Presentations

  • Jul 2012, International Society of Political Psychology Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL)
  • Apr 2012, Midwest Political Science Association National Conference (Chicago, IL). (x2)
  • Sept 2011, American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (Seattle, WA).

• Dissertation Title

  • Mobilizing Agression in Mass Politics

• Dissertation Chair

  • Donald Kinder

• Dissertation Committee

  • Nancy Burns, Ted Brader, Nicholas Valentino