PhD Alumni

Below is a comprehensive list of all students who earned a Ph.D. in political science at Rice since 1990. While the most common path for our graduates is an academic career, we also have a number of alums who have pursued successful careers in the government, non-profit, and private sectors.

Name Year Dissertation Current Position
Cayden McDonald 2023 Disgust and Social Attitudes: Exploring Why Disgust Underlies Conservatism and Prejudice Senior Data Analyst, Southern Methodist University
Nicholas Coulombe 2023 Promises of Future Cooperation and Alliance Credibility Professor of Government, San Jacinto College
Allegra Hernandez 2023 The Role of Affective Attachments in American Politics Program Evaluator, Legislative Finance Committee - New Mexico State Legislature
Colin Jones 2023 The Social Context of Voting Data Scientist, Starbucks Coffee Company
Santiago Lopez Alvarez 2023 The impacts of violence on the electoral and political behavior of civilians: Evidence from Colombia Project Management Officer, UN Executive Office of the Secretary-General and Associate Researcher, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
Alex Pugh 2023 Designed to Favor: The Effects of Appointing Ad Hoc Judges in International Courts Lecturer, Social Policy Analysis Program, Rice University
Enrique Quezada 2023 The Effect of Religious Language and Commitments on Americans’ Political Behavior Assistant Professor, Agnes Scott College
Aiganym Valikhanova 2023 Target Governments' Domestic and Foreign Policy Responses to Economic Sanctions Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
Marques Zárate 2023 How Citizens Form Perceptions of Political Pandering Assistant Professor, Brown University
Maria Aroca 2022 Neither Hierarchy nor Chaos: The Emergence of Legislative Organization in the Colombian Congress Assistant Professor, Universidad del Norte
Yuki Atsusaka 2022 Political Methodologies for Electoral Engineering and Minority Representation Assistant Professor, Hobby School of Public Affairs, University of Houston
Kristin Bryant 2022 Essays on Human Rights: Protecting and Promoting Human Rights at Home and Abroad Researcher/Statistician, Office of Fiscal Affairs, State of South Carolina
Jared Oestman 2022 Providing Peace: The Role of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations in Shaping States’ Voluntary Commitments to UN Peace Operations Assistant Professor, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Andra Pascu-Lindner 2022 The Effect of Voter Gender and Gender Stereotypes on Evaluations of High-Information Political Environments Senior Researcher, Purple Strategies
Liana Eustacia Reyes 2022 Law and Conflict Assistant Professor, Purdue University
Kaitlin Senk 2022 When Do Women Represent Women? Variation in Substantive Representation in Latin America Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter
Andy Carrizosa 2021 Legislative Instability and Party Power in Paraguay Survey and Experiments Analyst, A—B
Steven Perry 2021 Down-Ballot Decision Making: The Effect of Electoral Levels on Individual Cognitive Processing & Information Consumption Lecturer in Data Visualization for Rice University’s Program in Writing and Communication
Jessica Edry
2020
Domestic Politics, NGO Activism, and Global Cooperation
VP, Data Analytics, Live Oak Bank
Matt Lamb 2020 Disparities in Democracy: The Causes and Consequences of Polling Place Practices and Conditions Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University
Carly Mayes 2020 Gender Stereotypes and Candidate Evaluation Survey Analyst, Houston ISD
Cem Birol
2019
Publicly-Conducted Missile Tests in International Politics
Research Data Management Coordinator, Koç University
Agustina Haime
2019
The Importance of Political Parties for Voters in Latin America
Researcher, Meta
Jonathan Kurt Simmons
2019
The Intervention Nexus: Peacekeeping and Foreign Aid in Conflict-Affected States
International Relations Advisor for US Army Installation Management Command – Europe
Andrew Menger
2018
Measuring the Costs of Voting and Their Impacts
Visiting Scholar, Vanderbilt University
Philip Santoso
2018
Partisan Bias in Economic Perceptions: How Political and Economic Contexts Condition the Strength of the Partisan Screen
Assistant Professor, Duke Kunshan University
Santiago Sosa
2018
An Economic Theory of Pro-Government Militias
Assistant Professor, Universidad EAFIT
Carolina Tchintian
2018
Ballots, Vote Casting Procedures and Electoral Outcomes
Director of Political Institutions Research at CIPPEC (an Argentine think-tank)
Agustin Vallejo
2018
The Gendered Effect of Losing an Election and Its Consequences on Descriptive Representation
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Hobby School of Public Affairs, University of Houston
Andrew Wood
2018
Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Refugee Movements
Leadership Specialist, Russell Reynolds
Ahra Wu
2018
Alliance Choices and Their Effects on Interstate Disputes: Adopting a New Methodological Approach to Address Endogenous Treatment and Sample Selection Bias
Senior Research Specialist, Bobst Center, Princeton University
Santiago Alles
2017
Parties, Incumbents and the Reform of Electoral Rules in Latin American Democracies
Assistant Professor, Universidad de San Andrés
James Hedrick
2017
Immigration Policy in the American States: Attitudes, Adoption, and Outcomes
Senior Financial Analyst, Federal Housing Finance Agency and Commissioner, Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission
Mathias Tromborg
2017
Voter Demands and Representative Behavior
Associate Professor, Aarhus University
Hiroki Kubo
2016
Organizing Legislative Parties: How Elections and Policy Positions Shape Intraparty Politics
Associate Professor, Meiji Gakuin University
Fanglu Sun
2016
Divide and Concede: Territorial Autonomy and Ethnic Rebellion
Assistant Professor, Fudan University
Iliya Atanasov
2015
Delegation, Agency and Competitive Representation
Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz
2015
Genetic Links Among Ideology, Cognitive Style, Big Five Personality, and Executive Functions
Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Seonghui Lee
2015
What Makes Politics Interesting? How Political Contexts Shape Political Interest and Knowledge Across the World
Senior Lecturer, University of Essex
Nick C.N. Lin
2015
The Electoral Cost of Coalition Governance and Elites' Behavior in Parliamentary Democracies
Associate Research Fellow, Academia Sinica
Naoko Matsumura
2015
The Effects of Foreign Audiences in International Dispute Settlements
Associate Professor, Kobe University
Marvin McNeese
2015
Win the Battleground to Win the Battle: Essays on Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and Interest Group Venue Shopping
Professor, College of Biblical Studies
Jaewook Chung
2014
The Power Distribution Between Allies, Alliance Politics and Alliance Duration
Assistant Professor, Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES), Kyungnam University
Jinhyeok Jang
2014
Dimensions of Politics: How Institutions Shape East Asian Legislatures
Assistant Professor, National Sun Yat-sen University
Jaclyn Kettler
2014
The Right to Party (Resources): Political Party Networks and Candidate Success
Associate Professor, Boise State University
Matthew Loftis
2014
Strategic Obfuscation: How Governments Use Bureaucratic Delegation
Senior Data Scientist, The Danish Tax Agency, Antifraud Unit
Carlos Cuellar
2013
Latino Descriptive Representation in Municipal Government: An Analysis of Latino Mayors
Director of Institutional Assessment, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Jason Eichorst
2013
Conditioning Descriptive Representation: Institutional Moderation of Unique Group Perspectives in Legislative Debates
Decision Scientist, USAA
Tobias Heinrich
2013
Strategic Choices in Foreign Aid
Associate Professor, University of South Carolina
Yoshiharu Kobayashi
2013
Implementation of Economic Sanctions
Associate Professor, University of Leeds
Renita Miller
2013
Minority Voices: The Representational Roles of African American and Latino Legislators During State Legislative Deliberations
Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Tiffany Barnes
2012
Gender Quotas and The Representation of Women: Empowerment, Decision-making, and Public Policy
Professor, University of Kentucky
Daina Chiba
2012
Essays on Durations of War and Postwar Peace
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Macao
David Fortunato
2012
Essays on Voter and Partisan Behavior in Coalitional Democracies
Associate Professor, University of California, San Diego
Jesse C. Johnson
2012
The Cost of Security: Foreign Policy Concessions and Military Alliances
Associate Professor, University of Kentucky
Carla Martinez-Machain
2012
Aerial Strategies and Their Effect on Conflict Characteristics
Professor of Political Science, University at Buffalo, SUNY
Akitaka Matsuo
2012
The Electoral Strategy of Legislative Politics: Balancing Party and Member Reputation in Japan and Taiwan
Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Analytics and Data Science (IADS), University of Essex
Ngoc Phan
2012
Anger In Action: The Role of Emotions, Competition, and Threat on Mobilization
Assistant Professor, Hawaii Pacific University
Stephanie Burchard
2011
Authoritatively Democratic? The Functioning of Elections in Botswana’s Dominant Party System
Researcher, Institute for Defense Analyses Africa Program
Andrew Spiegelman
2010
Cartelization in U.S. State Legislatures
Head of Data and Analytics, Service NSW
Christy Aroopala
2009
Mobilizing Collective Identity: Frames & Rational Individuals
Associate Director, Customer Analytics & Insights, AIG
Raul Gonzalez
2009
The Legislative Politics of Party Competition: An Analysis of Internal Organization in Eight Mexican State Congresses, 2001-2008
Associate Professor of Practice and Director of the Arizona Teachers Academy, University of Arizona and Director of the Tucson Regional Educator Collaborative
David Goodman
2009
The Use of Statutory Control by U.S. State legislators: One Step Closer to a More Complete Understanding of Legislative Control of Bureaucrats
VP of Learning and Impact, Ajah Data Consulting
Victor Marin
2009
Arms racing and conflict in the Third World: 1970-2000
Team Chief of the Modeling and Statistics Branch, United States Intelligence Community
Juan Pablo Micozzi
2009
The Electoral Connection in Multi-Level Systems with Non-Static Ambition: Linking Political Careers and Legislative Performance in Argentina
Associate Professor, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
Jonathan Robinson
2009
Measuring Political Clientelism: The Systematic Qualitative Method
Gavin Dillingham
2008
Urban Sprawl and Economic Competition: Explaining Governments' Adoption and the Effectiveness of Urban Growth Management Policy
Vice President of Research, Energy and Air Quality at Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC)
Greg Vonnahme
2008
Helping America Vote? The Institutional Design of Elections and Recent Reforms
Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Sezi Anac
2007
The Broader-Deeper Trade Off and Regional Trade Agreements
Counsellor, Embassy of Turkey
Valentin Krustev
2007
Bargaining and economic coercion: The use and effectiveness of sanctions
Senior Manager, KPMG
Brent Boyea
2006
State Methods of Judicial Selection: An Evaluation of Career Ambition
Professor, University of Texas-Arlington
Johanna Dunaway
2006
What Makes the News? The Institutional Determinants of the Political News Agenda
Associate Professor, Texas A&M University
Michaela Mattes
2006
Falling to "Peaces": Conciliatory Agreements and the Durability of Peace
Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Beth Miller Vonnahme
2006
Charting the Course: A Test of the Dynamic Implications of the On-Line and Memory-Based Models
Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Rosa Eugenia Sandoval Bustos
2006
Explaining the commercial peace: Costs, information, and signaling
Director of Research and Analysis at the Mexican Senate, the Center for International Studies Gilberto Bosques
Burcu Savun
2006
Information, Bias, and Mediation Success: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mediation of International Conflicts
Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Paru Shah
2006
The Politics and Policy Implications of Latino Representation in Education
Full Professor, Political Science and Senior Researcher for the Center for American Women and Politics, Rutgers University
M. Shawn Reichert
2005
Legislating for Europe: The Dynamics of MEP Voting Behavior
William O. Douglas Honors College Faculty and Institutional Effectiveness Research Coordinator, Central Washington University
Navin A. Bapat
2004
Non-state Actors and Political Conflict
Professor, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Kellie Butler
2004
Agenda-setting in the States: An institutional Analysis
Dean of Student Services at Los Rios Community College District, Folsom Lake College; Sacramento CA
Laura Delgado
2004
Legislative Organization in the American States: The Role of Executive Reorganizations
Freelance Writer, edhelper.com
Kevin Arceneaux
2003
The Federal Face of Democratic Representation: The Effects of Responsibility Attribution on Cross-level Voting Behavior and Government Responsiveness in the United States
Professor of Political Science, the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po Paris
Martin Johnson
2002
Influences of Contextual Information and Social Connectedness on Political Behavior
Deceased 2020; former Dean, Kevin P. Reilly Sr. Chair in Political Communication, Louisiana State University
Bernadette Jungblut
2002
International Trade and Interstate Conflict: The Influence of Domestic Political Institutions
Professor of Political Science and William O. Douglas Honors College Faculty, Central Washington University
Nancy Miller
2002
Theories of Legislative Organization and the Development of United States State Legislative Committee Systems
Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Dayton
Stephanie Post
2002
Cities and Their Suburbs: "Go Along to Get Along"
Assistant Dean of Operations at School of Engineering, Rice University
Stacy Ulbig
2002
Subnational Contextual Influences on Political Trust
Professor, Sam Houston State University
Jeffrey Dixon
2001
Intervention, Capabilities, Costs, and the Outcome of Civil Wars
Associate Professor, Texas A&M University - Central Texas
Richard Engstrom
2001
Electoral District Structure and Political Behavior
Associate Research Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
Allison Ownby
2001
Cycling and Recycling: The Effects of Group Context and Member Involvement on Social Capital
Professor and Associate Dean, Office of Educational Programs, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Houston
Scott Wohlander
2001
A Theory of Third-party Intervention in Disputes in International Politics
Senior Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer at Coverent LLC
Dina Al-Sowayel
1999
Target Types and the Efficacy of Economic Sanctions
Associate Director of Womens Studies at the University of Houston
Sean Bolks
1999
Security Policy Choices: Foreign Policy Behavior as a Function of Threat, Capability and Governmental Structure
Vice President Strategic Planning and Analysis at Apex International Energy
Patrick Moriarty
1999
A Domestic Institutional Approach to the Study of Foreign Policy: Factors Affecting Dispute Behavior
Executive Director, Ernst and Young Advisory
Robert Hogan
1998
The Role of Campaigns in State Legislative Elections
R. Downs Poindexter Professor and Department Chair, Louisiana State University
Jody Neathery-Castro
1998
Regionalizing France: Decentralization or Trompe l'Oeil?
Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement and University Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Omaha
Holly Teeters Reynolds
1998
Institutional Change: The Mexican Chamber of Deputies
Assistant Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of Liberal Arts, University of Mississippi
Carl Rhodes
1998
Information and Leadership in Laboratory and Field
Managing Director, Ernst and Young
R. Bruce Anderson
1997
Electoral Competition and the Structure of State Legislatures: Organizational Complexity and Party Building
Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College
LaVonna Blair Lewis
1997
The Allocation of Distributive Program Benefits and the Maintenance of Interest Groups
Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Teaching Professor of Public Policy, University of Southern California
Brian Posler
1997
Reaping Gains Through the Organizational Party: Delegation to Party Leaders of the United States House of Representatives
President of Lake Erie College
Peter Dawson
1996
Liberal Hegemony and Democratic Peace
Chief of Staff of Marine Corps Installations Pacific
Krittibas Ray
1995
The Political Economy of Pax Nipponica: Pacific Asia, Japanese Economic Expansion and Elite Perception
Valerie Schwebach
1995
Conflict Management and Negotiation Arithmetic: Adding Issues, Adding Parties
Freelance Data Scientist and Statistician
Lisa J. Carlson
1994
A Theory of Escalation: The Use of Coercive Bargaining Strategies in International Conflict
Professor, University of Idaho
Sara White
1994
Variations in Formal Structures of Neighborhood Organizations and Their Effects on Member Involvement
Retired from a career in city planning
Garry Young
1994
Legislative Decision Making Under Multiple Referral
Director, GW Institute of Public Policy, George Washington University
Adrian Clark
1991
A Comparative Examination of the Reagan and Thatcher Administrations' Approaches Toward Reforming the Welfare State
Professor of Political Science, Del Mar College
Albert Ellis
1991
The Regressive Era: Progressive Era Tax Reform and the National Tax Association--Roots of the Modern American Tax Structure. (Volumes I and II)
Passed away in February 2013. Taught political science at Texas A&M-Kingsville for more than 20 years.
Cheryl Young
1991
Bill Introduction in the United States House of Representatives, 1821-1895
Attorney
Andree E. Reeves
1990
Barden to Powell to Perkins: Leadership and Evolution of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, 1951-2004
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Alabama at Huntsville
Michelle Taylor-Robinson
1990
Bureaucratic Politics as a Cause of Government Growth: The Case of Costa Rica
Professor, Texas A&M University