Co-Directors

Sunita Parikh

Professor Parikh is Associate Professor of Political Science. Her primary areas of interest are comparative politics, race and ethnicity, institutions, comparative methods. She has published a book on the institutional development of affirmative action in the United States and India, using comparative historical and rational-choice methods. She has also written on law and politics, education, social movements in the United States and India, and federalism.
Dan Butler

Professor Butler is a Professor Political Science. His research uses experiments to study issues of representation.  This research has appeared in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of PoliticsPolitical Analysis, the Quarterly Journal of Political ScienceLegislative Studies Quarterly, and other journals.  He is the author of the book Representing the Advantaged (Cambridge University Press).
Matthew Hayes

Professor Hayes is an Associate professor of political science. His research lies at the intersection between race and political representation. His current research investigates how citizens evaluate the importance of descriptive, symbolic, and substantive representation. Professor Hayes has also published on redistricting and legislative responsiveness, the role of ethnic identity and skin tone in determining perceptions of ethnic discrimination in Latin America, and how personality shapes political trust.

Graduate Coordinators

Amaan Charaniya

Amaan is a third year graduate student at WashU studying International Relations and Methods. Broadly, he’s interested in topics related to borders, territory, and political violence. His research looks to understand the ramifications for international conflict and the historical consequences of war and state-building. He has a secondary interest in GIS and spatial analysis.