Margit Tavits
Dr. William Taussig Professor in Arts and Sciences*
Department of Political Science
I specialize in comparative politics, with regional expertise in Europe (both east and west), and my research interests are relatively broad: I have studied various issues related to political parties, political institutions, corruption, democratization, and gender equality. While I continue to be interested in these topics, my recent research extends the list even further and considers the effects of wartime violence on cooperation and representation during and after the war. Some of my most exciting research ventures into an uncharted territory in political science: I explore how the language we speak affects how we think about politically relevant issues such as equality, environmental policy, and ethnic divisions.
I’m the author of five books and 60 peer-reviewed articles. My book, Voicing Politics, co-authored with Efrén Pérez (UCLA), won the 2023 Robert E. Lane award for the best book in political psychology, and my Comparative Campaign Dynamics dataset with Zeynep Somer-Topcu (UT-Austin) and Marc Debus (Mannheim) received the 2024 Lijphart/Przeworski/Verba best dataset prize. My articles have been published in leading journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and many others. My work has so far collected about 8500 citations and my current h-index is 44. My research has been supported by the Weidenbaum Center, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the German National Science Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council and other sources.
* This professorship was established in recognition of Dr. William Taussig, who was born in Prague in 1826 and came to St. Louis in the mid-1840’s. Dr. Taussig attended medical school at Washington University and received an honorary law degree from the university in 1905. In addition to his other credentials, Dr. Taussig was presiding justice of the St. Louis County Court during the Civil War. Prior to being awarded to me, the Dr. William Taussig Professorship was held by Norman Schofield — an intellectual giant and a colorful personality. It is a particular honor and source of pride to hold a professorship with such a rich history.
Email: tavits@wustl.edu
Office: Seigle Hall 234A
Campus Box 1063
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899