Political Science

Christina Kinane

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Christina M. Kinane is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University and a resident faculty fellow at the Institution of Social and Policy Studies. Broadly, she studies the role of legislatures, executives, and the bureaucracy in policymaking. In particular, her current research examines how presidents strategically use vacancies in top appointments to promote their policy priorities within the framework of interbranch bargaining. Professor Kinane teaches courses on American politics and U.S. executive politics.

Hélène Landemore

Professor of Political Science

Hélène is Professor of Political Science (with a specialization in political theory). Her research and teaching interests include democratic theory, political epistemology, theories of justice, the philosophy of social sciences (particularly economics), constitutional processes and theories, and workplace democracy.

Seulki Lee-Geiller

Associate Research Scientist

Seulki Lee-Geiller is an Associate Research Scientist at Yale University’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, focusing on Democratic Innovations. Her interdisciplinary work combines political science, public policy, and technology, aimed at addressing rapidly evolving societal challenges from a governance perspective. She has explored the effects of technology on citizen-government interactions and is currently researching open government policies, delving into their nature, the dynamics of global policy transfer, and the driving forces of this trend.

Paul Lendway

Paul Lendway is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in political science at Yale University studying inequality, populism, and social movements. His first dissertation paper (R&R at Political Behavior) posits and tests a theoretical framework for how populist appeals increase mass support for democratic erosion. His research has been published at American Politics Research, Environmental Politics, and the Yale Journal of International Affairs.

Mackenzie Lockhart

Postdoctoral Associate

Mackenzie Lockhart is a Postdoctoral Associate with the Democratic Innovations program at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, San Diego in 2023. His research focuses on elections, representation, and public opinion with particular focus on how voters behave in American elections and consequences for representation.

Isabela Mares

Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science

Isabela Mares is the Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science and the Director of the European Union Center at Yale. She specializes in the comparative politics of Europe. Professor Mares has written extensively on labor market and social policy reforms, the political economy of taxation, electoral clientelism, reforms limiting electoral corruption. Her current research examines the political responses to antiparliamentarism in both contemporary and historical settings.

David Mayhew

Sterling Professor of Political Science, Emeritus

David Mayhew is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science.

Isabel Prioleau

Dahl Scholar, 2023-2024

Isabel Prioleau is a junior in Davenport College pursuing a Political Science major and a certificate in French. Her research focuses on comparative European politics, and especially on understanding how contemporary threats to democracy shape and are shaped by dynamics of party competition, welfare state development, and European integration. As a Dahl Scholar, Isabel is working under the guidance of Professor Isabela Mares to situate democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland within the context of social policy reform and nonprogrammatic electoral competition.

John Roemer

Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics

John Roemer is the Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Science and Economics. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and has been a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. His research concerns political economy, and distributive justice. He is currently teaching Political Competition and a Workshop in Political Economy. Publications include: Political Competition, Harvard University Press, 2001; Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press, 1998, Theories of Distributive Justice, Harvard University Press, 1996.

Tony Ruan

Dahl Scholar, 2023-2024

Tony is a third-year student from Phoenix, Arizona completing the BA/MA in Political Science, as well as the Education Studies Scholars program. He is broadly interested in how organized labor interacts with political institutions. As a Dahl Research Scholar, he is working with Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science Jacob Hacker on a project studying the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as an agent of policy drift.