Kathleen Searles
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kesearles.bsky.social
Kathleen Searles
@kesearles.bsky.social
3.6K followers 370 following 76 posts
usually thinking about news, politics, technology, and other things i don’t want to talk to you about on an airplane.
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Reposted by Kathleen Searles
jacob-long.com
We are hiring for several positions this cycle: Assistant Prof in Sci Comm, Assistant Prof in Health Comm, Open-Rank in AI. I think this is a great place to work. More info here: sc.edu/study/colleg...
Employment Opportunities - College of Information and Communications | University of South Carolina
sc.edu
October 14, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
mattmotta.bsky.social
The Trump administration's attacks on civil service are profoundly personal.

Today at @jhppl.bsky.social, I outline the "science of standing up for science;" how we can use social science research to restore health agencies' regulatory authority.

read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...
“We Want to Put Them in Trauma”: Understanding the Trump Administration's Attack on Government Health Agency Regulatory Authority | Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
October 8, 2025 at 2:35 PM
kesearles.bsky.social
NYT wants to hear from researchers who had their funding cut, form here: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...
Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.
www.nytimes.com
October 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
gelliottmorris.com
Why most polls overstate support for political violence
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/most-polls...
Why most polls overstate support for political violence
Misperceptions about the popularity of violence increase public support for it — but you can help change that.
www.gelliottmorris.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:22 PM
kesearles.bsky.social
My friend & mentor, Martin Johnson is 5 years gone today - i regularly quote him to my students (my fav is to do finger guns & say I’m not a normal professor I’m a cool professor), but mostly every day I try to do well while doing good, just like he always said. www.cambridge.org/core/service...
www.cambridge.org
September 28, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
jsievert.bsky.social
Happy (official) publication day to one of my favorite projects ever!

tldr: Congressional votes on early federal infrastructure policy was influenced by partisan, distributive, and racial considerations
The National Road was an early, but failed, attempt by the United States Congress to build an interstate highway. The Road, which extended through the newly formed western states, led to fierce debate over two interconnected issues. First, should Congress authorize additional routes that would expand the Road beyond its original western route? Second, should the Road remain under federal control or should it be given to the states through which it ran? I find that partisanship was the most consistent predictor of a legislator’s position on these questions. In addition to partisanship, legislators from districts with a larger slave population were also more likely to oppose the Road. Distributive politics also informed representative’s behavior ad those whose districts were more proximate to the Road were more of these projects. In sum, an examination of the politics of the National Road helps to shed light on the interconnection of partisanship, slavery, and distributive politics in early America and its implications for early American political development.
September 19, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
bjpols.bsky.social
From May 2025 -

Gendered Expectations: Do Voters Reward Women for Supporting Women’s Interests? - cup.org/3YTHTQJ

- Nichole M. Bauer, @annagunderson.bsky.social, @jeonghyunkim.bsky.social, @elizabethlane.bsky.social, Belinda Davis & @kesearles.bsky.social

#OpenAccess
BJPolS abstract discussing the impact of gender expectations on voter behavior towards legislators regarding women's issues, including abortion and equal pay. The document is displayed in a green box with white text.
July 16, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
ozankuru.bsky.social
Can we train individuals on survey methods to boost their critical processing of public opinion evidence?

"Survey Methods 101" is now accepted to Public Opinion Quarterly.
July 13, 2025 at 1:17 PM
kesearles.bsky.social
does anyone have any perceptions of democracy survey qs they've used that they like (I will cite you!)? can't find any that i love, particularly for elite sample
July 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
kesearles.bsky.social
Highly recommend this by Adam Sitze for all academics thinking abt what this current moment demands of us, & interested in the history of tenure/academic freedom - he argues for situating academic freedom in the context of religious liberty (rather than freedom of speech) medium.com/the-politica...
July 1, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
mattgraham.bsky.social
When gauging public reactions to the latest controversy, it's important not to conduct or share misleading polls. Our new paper in Public Opinion Quarterly is a template for how to (and how not to) poll about the effect of political developments.

Gift link: academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...
February 24, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
anacweeks.bsky.social
How does the “mental load” of taking care of family and household influence decisions about participating in public life?

In a new @bjpols.bsky.social paper w @annanhelgoy.bsky.social we use a survey experiment priming domestic mental load to find out.

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

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Crowded Out: The Influence of Mental Load Priming on Intentions to Participate in Public Life | British Journal of Political Science | Cambridge Core
Crowded Out: The Influence of Mental Load Priming on Intentions to Participate in Public Life - Volume 55
doi.org
February 21, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Kathleen Searles
wolfgangminatti.com
🚨 New Publication! "Being Affected: The Epistemic Value of Vulnerability in Fieldwork" 📝
We argue that fieldwork's unsettling moments are more than challenges—they're opportunities to generate crucial insights about the social worlds we study. Check it out: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... ✨
‘Being affected’: The epistemic value of vulnerability in fieldwork Wolfgang Minatti and Frédéric Guillaume Gass-Quintero As ethics of fieldwork gain prominence, discussions in qualitative methods have increasingly focused on the relationship between vulnerability and fieldwork practices. Existing literature provides ethical prescriptions and safety recommendations for fieldworkers in ‘dangerous places’. However, it falls short of addressing the analytic stakes created by experiences of vulnerability in the field. This is problematic because it limits the fieldworker's reflexivity, preventing them from examining unsettling situations as relevant data. To address this, the article builds on an understanding of vulnerability as a type of situation. We argue that fieldworkers gain an analytic advantage by reflecting on experiences shaped by situations of vulnerability, offering insights into the social context under investigation and the researcher's position in it. The article demonstrates the epistemic value of vulnerability by drawing on fieldwork on the Colombian conflict and peace process.
February 11, 2025 at 9:59 AM
kesearles.bsky.social
New in PolCom, Maki, Mann & I propose + offer evidence for a new category of election coverage we call *voting process coverage* (VPC); importantly, we find this type of coverage is not just prevalent, but drowns out game frame coverage in lead-up to Election Day www.tandfonline.com/eprint/JFBIF...
U.S. Election Day Coverage of Voting Processes
Voting in the U.S. is a costly activity, so the public looks to the news media for information. And yet, we know little about news coverage of voting. We first defined voting process coverage (VPC)...
www.tandfonline.com
December 16, 2024 at 6:31 PM
kesearles.bsky.social
👋🏽 blue sky, finally made the jump! looking forward to this transition fixing all my problems
December 12, 2024 at 12:13 AM