The seminar is entitled, “Partisan Conversion through Neighborhood Influence: How Voters Adopt the Partisanship of their Neighbors and Reinforce Geographic Polarization”.
All physically present will be required to be masked per the current University policy. Zoom registration link is available for anyone interested in attending the seminar virtually.
Jacob Brown is a PhD Candidate in Government at Harvard University studying political behavior in American politics, with particular interest in how political geography and group identity structure political behavior. His dissertation investigates the behavioral consequences of geographic partisan polarization, with specific focus on how this polarization is self-reinforcing: how living in increasingly homogeneous partisan environments influences voters’ political affiliations. To this end, he develops data on the partisan residential exposure of every voter in the United States over the past decade, leveraging precise information on each voter’s residential location, partisan affiliation, and political behavior. With these data he presents new evidence on the extent and causes of partisan sorting in the United States and test new theories of how where Democrats and Republicans live in relation to one another influences political behavior.