A female student holding a microphone towards another female student to ask questions at a political debate.

Department of Political Science News

The Department of Political Science is dedicated to excellence in research, teaching, and service. Our students learn and receive mentorship from faculty members who specialize in various subjects including American politics, comparative politics, international politics, political theory, public law, and public policy.

Current Political Science News

Outdoor view
Campus News |

A collection of top headlines featuring UNLV faculty and students.

winning team holds check
Business and Community |

How a stubborn bird dropping on a campus building helped spark the winning students’ idea for a high-rise window-cleaning drone.

Joyce Woodhouse in light blue blazer
People |

Joyce Woodhouse leaves Nevada better for children and families.

springtime bees
Campus News |

A flowery collection of top headlines featuring UNLV faculty and students.

Campus landscape
Campus News |

Some of the hottest headlines featuring UNLV faculty, staff, and students.

Some early studying during the opening week of the Spring 2026 semester (Josh Hawkins/UNLV).
Campus News |

A look at some of the most eye-grabbing headlines featuring UNLV faculty, staff, and students.

Political Science In The News

KSNV-TV: News 3

Sweeping Supreme Court opinions released Monday are expected to reshape how elections are run in more than half the states, raising new questions about what comes next for voting rules and future legal fights.

Spectrum News 1

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s announcement last week that he supports in vitro fertilization (IVF) is putting him on opposite sides of the state’s Republican Party, a declaration highlighting a broader divide among Republicans about how far the party should go in limiting reproductive rights after the Supreme Court ended the right to abortion. Paxton’s announcement comes as he is locked in a neck-and-neck race for U.S. Senate against Democrat James Talarico.

CBS News

One issue will decide Steven Cohen's vote for Nevada governor this fall: Which candidate can best protect him from getting kicked off Medicaid?

Nevada Independent

Turnout in Nevada's primaries increased slightly this year compared with the 2024 election, as competitive races especially in Northern Nevada helped boost participation.

CBS News

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo won their parties' primaries in this year's Nevada gubernatorial race, CBS News projects, setting up the November ballot in one of the races Democrats are targeting.

KSNV-TV: News 3

As polls closed across Nevada Tuesday evening, Clark County election officials began processing thousands of ballots delivered to the county’s election headquarters.

Political Science Experts

An expert in political philosophy, and the intersection of politics and religion.
An expert on judges, judicial selection, and race and gender bias.
A political scientists specializing in international relations, security, and terrorism.
An expert on American politics, campaigns and elections and public policy.
An expert in competitive debate, policy debate, argumentation and persuasion, and presidential and political debates.
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An expert in international security, immigration and refugee policies, and political violence.

Recent Political Science Accomplishments

Andrew Lugg (Political Science) and co-authors Manfred Elsig, Kirthana Ganeson, and Marine Roux have published an article, "Trade Agreements and the design of democracy-related provisions (TRADEM): The creation of a new data set," in The Review of International Organizations. The article combines manual coding and machine learning to measure…
Austin Horng-En Wang (Political Science) published an article, "Unconditional cash transfer and polarized support," in International Political Science Review. The article examines a unique "unconditional" COVID-19 relief voucher lottery in Taiwan in 2021, in which vouchers were randomly assigned based on the last two digits of citizens’…
Jacob Cox and Austin Horng-En Wang (both Political Science) published an article, "Asymmetric blame-shifting in the era of globalization," in European Political Science. The article analyzes two survey experiments on whether the leader's blame-shifting strategy works in the eye of voters, and whether such blame-shifting may lower people's trust on…
Austin Horng-En Wang (Political Science) and others published an article, "The People's Liberation Army's Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence Highlighting Integration as Key to "Intelligentization" Goals", with RAND Corporation. This article analyzes how China's PLA introduced and integrate AI into its equipment and operation through an…
Rebecca Gill (Political Science) and coauthors Christopher Zorn (Penn State University) and Jennie Sweet-Cushman (Chatham University) won the 2026 Jewell Limar Prestage Best Paper Award from the Southwestern Political Science Association for their paper “Gender and the Misperception of Women’s Representation in State Legislatures and Congress…
Austin Horng-En Wang's (Political Science) research on cognitive warfare and espionage was cited in a legislative proposal introduced by a Member of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. In the proposal, the legislator referenced Wang’s research to urge Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense to develop more comprehensive preventive measures aimed at…