An @thenation.com article focused on Kentucky's Martin County, part of coal country brought into focus when LBJ launched the War on Poverty there. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

UK Poli Sci Ph.D. Tasnia Symoom publishes more work from her dissertation, which looked at attitudes toward violence against women in Bangladesh. #PoliticalScience #WomenAlsoKnowStuff journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Research by UK Poli Sci Ph.D. Ridvan Peshkopia just out, exploring the linkage between personality traits and support for human rights. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Come work with us! Two #PoliticalScience jobs in the #ComparativePolitics subfield, one in comparative behavior (ideally democratic attitudes/participation) & one ideally in Emerging Democratic Institutions. Please circulate widely! ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600... ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...

#NEW | Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot Wednesday while attending an event at Utah Valley University.

An essay on trends in higher education by Jeffery Tyler Syck. My main takeaway: Universities have been moving in the wrong direction if they want to cultivate students capable of surviving in an economy ruled by artificial intelligence.

"If we can generate valid arguments, beautiful art and compelling novels at the level of human experts—possibly better!—by entering a simple prompt into a text box, is there any point in continuing to do these things ourselves?" thepointmag.com/examined-lif...

One person's waste is another person's policy priority.

Out: Nationalization of politics In: Internationalization of politics

How is the U.S. Senate race shaping up? Does an incumbent-free Sixth District contest create an opening for Dems? We talk with UK political analyst @dstephenvoss.bsky.social.

Did Trump swing Black voters his way in 2024? In the electorate as a whole, maybe not - but my analysis of Louisiana voting patterns using ecological inference does support the idea Trump saw gains in heavily Black areas. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

“Feeding yourself is a basic human right,” said Jim DeSana, a Republican state representative in Michigan who has a farm and recently introduced legislation to allow more people to raise backyard chickens. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/eg...

"Republicans broadly sympathize with the Israelis (75%) over the Palestinians (10%), while Democrats sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis by a nearly 3-to-1 ratio (59% vs. 21%)." news.gallup.com/poll/657404/...

Political Science major Olivia Walton has won a nationally competitive award to study at Oxford, where she will take courses intended to advance her other major (English). Congrats, Olivia! uknow.uky.edu/student-news...

Cool piece by Kentucky Poli Sci Ph.D. @bayleeharrell.bsky.social challenging the expectation that use of private military contractors would lead to increased sexual violence. If anything, their professionalism (& desire for business) may reduce risks. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"El Salvador has agreed to house violent US criminals..." Someone please tell me that this is obviously unconstitutional? The idea of citizens being shipped outside U.S. jurisdiction for detainment feels like dystopian sci fi. www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/a...

I've been teaching in PS101 that the presidential honeymoon is dwindling away, but Dems better hope these numbers are caused by the newness of the Trump Administration (or by polling error). Meanwhile, wow, independents hate Nancy Pelosi. news.gallup.com/poll/656111/...

Beshear to speak at Davos www.kentucky.com/news/politic...

One reason we understimate the importance of elections is that when the public mood shifts, policy often will shift with it even before an election can reset the political leadership.

My analysis of Kentucky's Republican realignment from the Nineties to the Twenties, coauthored with Corrine Elliott & @drsherelleroberts.bsky.social, now appears in the Commonwealth Review of Political Science. It's available for download: digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crps/vol7/is...

A Financial Express piece on the threat of a BRICS currency coauthored by a former graduate student, @RajanKumarJNU. www.financialexpress.com/opinion/trum...

"Almost no Democrat will outrank Andy Beshear in the next couple of years," @dstephenvoss.bsky.social said. www.courier-journal.com/story/news/p...

If they archived the data from my now-broken phone and they're willing to give it back, then they're welcome to keep spying on me.

If you live in Jessamine County, KY, or nearby ... we're having an interdisciplinary discussion about the Electoral College: the history, the empirical record in the recent past, the future.

"Many Senate Democrats think that voters’ sour views about Biden’s record was driven by their anger over rising costs ... But there’s a growing feeling among Democratic lawmakers that the Biden administration completely mismanaged the huge surge of migrants..." thehill.com/homenews/sen...

"Today, Americans 55 and over control nearly 70% of U.S. household wealth..." I wonder how many former students remember the line I used to employ in my PS 101 Domestic Policy lecture: "Your grandparents are stealing from you." It was tongue in cheek, & yet... www.wsj.com/us-news/baby...

"17 percent of Americans say it’s very or somewhat likely that they will argue over politics at Thanksgiving (only 6 percent say it is very likely), compared to 11 percent last year..." Democrats (23%) are more likely to say this than Republicans (18%). tinyurl.com/59d7nfce

I've decided to make my X/Twitter background black & my Bluesky background white, because what I might be witnessing here is the next step in divergence between the eloi and the morlocks.

From Kentucky Edition, @ReneeKET talks with Univ. of Kentucky political scientist @DStephenVoss about the process for vetting and confirming the individuals selected for key positions in President-Elect Trump's new administration. ow.ly/nfhu50Uefhh