Charli Carpenter, Professor of Political Sciences, writes that it’s time to change the discussion around vaccine skepticism. “Imagine if, instead of arguing over the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 or MMR vaccines, global health organizations took a page from the propagandists’ playbook and created and shared memes and videos on social media featuring images of people afflicted with the various diseases that vaccines have allowed us to control,” Carpenter says.
Paul Collins, Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, has been honored for the second time with a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award from the American Library Association for Supreme Bias: Gender and Race in U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings (Stanford University Press, 2023).
UMass Amherst political scientists Tatishe Nteta, Jesse Rhodes and Adam Eichen, UMass Poll, write that the overwhelming passage of Massachusetts ballot Question 1, which grants the state auditor the authority to audit the Massachusetts Legislature, has delivered “a stunning rebuke of the Democratic Party.”
Alex Theodoridis, Associate Professor of Political Science, comments about a Boston Globe analysis showing that areas of Massachusetts in which the cost of living is outpacing inflation had the biggest gains in votes for Donald Trump from 2020 to 2024. “Voters did not feel good about where the economy was and that was mostly driven by their experience with inflation over the years,” Theodoridis says.
Charli Carpenter, Professor of Political Science, writes about the growing role of nongovernmental organizations in the pursuit of justice for human rights abuse victims. Carpenter cites the example of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a claim that led to a federal judge ordering a defense contractor to pay damages to three Iraqi men who were tortured in Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
Rebecca Hamlin, Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, and Razvan Sibii, senior lecturer of journalism, participated in a panel discussion at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum in Northampton about how the Immigration Act of 1924 changed America.
More than 100 people attended a faculty panel on Nov. 14 titled, “After the Election: The Work of Democracy Continues.” Amel Ahmed, associate professor of political science, said that Donald Trump “is about to find out that economics is really hard.” Alex Theodoridis, co-director of the UMass Poll, said polling has shown that the majority of Americans do not agree with the drastic changes to federal agencies outlined in Project 2025. Cedric de Leon , professor of sociology and labor studies, said, “Whether you find the Republican Party’s policy prescriptions to be reprehensible, racist
A recent national UMass Amherst/League of Women Voters Poll found that two-thirds of Americans oppose national bans on abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF).“Majorities of Americans, and in particular women, have expressed support for a federal law or constitutional amendment that reestablishes, enshrines and protects the right of women to choose an abortion,” says Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of political science and director of the UMass Poll.