Alumni Profiles

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier

is a scholar of American Politics and Political Methodology, and is the Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science and Professor of Sociology by courtesy at The Ohio State University. She was selected as a member of the 2017 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was an inaugural Fellow of the Society for Political Methodology. Box-Steffensmeier has twice received the Gosnell Award for the best work in political methodology and the Emerging Scholar Award of the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior Section of the American Political Science Association in 2001. The Box-Steffensmeier Graduate Student Award, given annually by the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is named after her in recognition of her contributions in political methodology and her support of women in the field. She received the Political Methodology Career Achievement Award in 2013 and Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Social Sciences in 2013.

Steven Brooke

in an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.He is also a Faculty Fellow at the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies (AALIMS) and a non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. Prior to joining UW-Madison, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Louisville. He received his Ph.D. in Government in 2015 from The University of Texas at Austin.

Steven’s research and teaching focuses on comparative politics, religion and politics, and the politics of the Middle East. His first book, Winning Hearts and Votes: Social Services and the Islamist Political Advantage, looks at how and why non-state groups provide social services, with an empirical focus on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and the British Journal of Middle East Studies. 

Brian Box

Brian Brox graduated with his Ph.D. in Government in 2005.  He is now an Associate Professor of Political Science at Tulane University and Director of Tulane's Program in U.S. Public Policy.  His research focuses on political parties, campaigns & elections, and public opinion.  He has published in several scholarly journals and his book, Back in the Game: Political Party Campaigning in an Era of Reform, was published in 2013 by SUNY Press.  His current projects include an assessment of the impact of convenience voting on the American electoral system as well as a comparative analysis of right wing populist parties in the United States and Western Europe.

Marc Hetherington

is a 1997 graduate of the Ph.D. program. He is now the Raymond Dawson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. He’s published articles in the discipline’s top journals and books with the top university presses. Most of his research focuses public opinion with a particular emphasis on trust in government and the sources and consequences of polarization in the US and, increasingly, abroad.

Annelise Russell

is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky. She is also a faculty associate of the U.S. Policy Agendas Project and a member of the Comparative Agendas Project. Dr. Russell’s research interests include questions about how policymakers communicate their agendas and the role of the media, particularly social media, in the political process. Much of her research is on congressional decision-making and communication, including an active research agenda in the intersection of social media and political institutions. Dr. Russell’s articles have appeared in American Politics Research, Policy Studies Journal, and The Forum. Much of her interest in political communication stems from her work as journalist working for the National Journal,Congressional Quarterly, and the San Francisco Chronicle.