The APSA Nominating Committee is pleased to announce the 2025 nominees for APSA Council. Each nominee has agreed to serve if elected. The call for nominations was circulated among the membership, and outreach specifically to APSA committees and organized sections was conducted. The candidates will be put to a vote by the full membership via electronic ballot in August. APSA also accepts nominees by petition. The deadline for submitting nominees by petition was June 3rd, 2025, and no nominations were received. Additional information about APSA elections is available at: https://www.apsanet.org/ABOUT/Governance/Elections.
Serving on the 2025–2026 Nominating Committee are: Michael Jones-Correa, University of Pennsylvania (Chair); Victor Asal, University at Albany, SUNY; Sarah Binder, GWU; Mona Lena Krook, Rutgers University; Mark Massoud, The University of California, Santa Cruz and Michelle Tolman Clarke, Dartmouth College.
PRESIDENT-ELECT
BETH SIMMONS
Andrea Mitchell University Professor of law, political science, and business ethics and the Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Statement of Views: My top priority for the American Political Science Association is to facilitate successful communication to a broad range of audiences. The public needs to know what the value added is of teaching political science at the college level. We need to clearly articulate the wide range of values that motivate our teaching and the wide range of skills available for understanding the political world. We do not need to have a unified vision of what these values and skills entail, but APSA should find ways to make political science teaching and research intelligible – even compelling – to the American public and to the world. Crucially, APSA should help to find ways in which, as scholars, we can shape and advance our own and shared narrative(s) of the value of a sound political education. APSA should be a platform to help advance the contributions political scientists have made and will continue to make to a responsible understanding of governance. As APSA President, I would seek ways our organization can help its members listen and communicate effectively about the indispensable value of political knowledge in our world.
VICE PRESIDENT
CRISTINA BELTRÁN
Associate professor in New York University’s Department of Social & Cultural Analysis. She is a political theorist, with diverse interests in contemporary political and social theory as well as the history of political thought.
Statement of Views: With our democracy facing unprecedented pressures and universities and colleges’ intellectual independence under assault, the work of political scientists could hardly be more important. More than ever, we need an association that is brave, principled, and willing to engage with the diversity of approaches and viewpoints that reflect our discipline and association. I am committed on working to maintain APSA as a vital space that embraces methodological pluralism and strives to build an intellectual community for scholars working across the full range of higher education. I’m particularly interested in how APSA can protect the principles of unfettered intellectual inquiry and protect the discipline from both censorship and ideological litmus tests. As a political theorist whose scholarship and teaching has been relentlessly interdisciplinary—bringing together works of democratic theory, literature, feminist and queer theory, electoral politics, race and ethnic politics, and more—I recognize the value and vitality of an expansive approach to the study of politics and look forward to helping promote the importance of our work to a functioning democratic society.
JAMES MAHONEY
Gordon Fulcher Professor of Decision-Making in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is a comparative‐historical analyst who works on national development, political regimes, and methodology.
Statement of Views: I would consider it a privilege to be a Vice President of APSA. I have been an APSA member for the last 35 years, and I had the pleasure of serving the discipline in many ways. Now more than ever, APSA can play a valuable role in supporting the teaching and research of political scientists. I am a longstanding advocate of methodological pluralism in the discipline. I am also strongly committed to promoting diversity in the profession. If elected, I would work to ensure that APSA continues to support question-driven research employing a diverse range of methodologies, including both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. I would also promote APSA’s work on mentoring programs for students and junior faculty, especially for women and underrepresented groups. I am deeply committed to the wellbeing of APSA and the discipline of political science. I believe that APSA can thrive if it avoids insularity, proactively reaches out to diverse audiences, and promotes both professional and public scholarship.
SHERRI WALLACE
Professor of political science and Associate Dean of International, Engagement, and Equity Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville.Her research focuses on ways to improve diversity in college textbooks, political science education, the profession and academia, race and politics, and community economic development.
Statement of Views: It is an honor to be nominated to serve as Vice President. My involvement with APSA began as an undergraduate at the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute. With the designation as a non-funded Minority Graduate Fellow, I received institutional support for graduate study in political science. Because of these investments in my education, now over three decades later in my career, I continue to enthusiastically serve the association and promote political science as a teacher, scholar, administrator, and engaged citizen. My act of “giving back” is an opportunity to be an agent, ally, and advocate for democratic, shared governance. Having previously served on the Executive Council, I aim to champion and promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity for all members, facilitate and support initiatives for the membership, subfields and sections, and create and cultivate a sense of belonging for all academic and institutional experiences that define APSA.
COUNCIL
BARRY BURDEN
Professor of political science, Director of the Elections Research Center, and the Lyons Family Chair in Electoral Politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Burden’s research and teaching focus on US elections, political parties, public opinion, and representation.
Statement of Views: As a longtime member of the association, it is an honor to be nominated for the APSA Council. I believe that APSA faces significant challenges and the Council’s role is to help anticipate and navigate them. I will prioritize the following: advocating for higher education and the discipline, ensuring the fiscal health of the association and its organized sections, supporting excellence and innovation in the annual meetings, journals, programming, and inclusive service to political scientists in a variety of settings, situations, and backgrounds.
NICHOLAS CARNES
Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of public policy, Professor of political science, and chair of the Campus IRB at Duke University. His research focuses on the shortages of people from working-class jobs in elected offices in the US and in other democracies; he also studies climate change politics, the politics of foster care, and politics in popular culture.
Statement of Views: I’ve been proud to be an APSA member since I was in graduate school, and I’ve seen first-hand the good that the association can do for new scholars and for the discipline. These are challenging times for our profession, and even harder times for many of the people and institutions we study and care about. In these trying times, institutions matter more than ever: the APSA represents thousands of scholars who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of politics and society, and it represents generations of future scholars who will carry on our work and our values. I think this moment calls on all of us to affirm who we are as a disciplinary community, to support one another through the trials ahead, and to be steadfast in our commitment to our important collective work of generating and sharing knowledge in the service of humanity, come what may.
PAUL CARRESE
Professor in the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, serving as founding Director 2016-2023. He teaches and publishes on American constitutional and political thought, political philosophy, civics, and American grand strategy.
Statement of Views: It is an honor to be nominated for the Council. If elected, I will work with APSA colleagues and staff for the common good of our Association and profession. As a member of APSA’s new standing Committee on Civic Education, one focus of my council work would prioritize our profession’s responsibility for American civics, particularly given the affective polarization and declining confidence in all American institutions (including higher education) which now are undermining our constitutional democratic republic. Responsible civic engagement and citizenship, regarding domestic affairs and America’s role internationally, requires a foundation of substantial civic knowledge of our principles and institutions; and development of civic virtues to include civil disagreement, a reflective patriotism, and civic friendship across divergent views. A second focus thus would be reinforcing intellectual diversity and robust discourse in APSA programming; to support our profession’s pursuit of knowledge about politics, restore public confidence, and welcome younger colleagues representing a range of views and priorities for inquiry. Given the America 250 commemorations unfolding 2026 to 2041 (Declaration to Bill of Rights), APSA might showcase its commitment to America’s common good by undertaking a major report on civics; and by launching a collaborative project with the American Historical Association.
THOMAS DOLAN
Associate Professor in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida where he studies international security, with particular interests in emotions, war, and intelligence.
Statement of Views: I am grateful to be nominated for the APSA council. APSA plays an important role in the common life of the profession and in the individual professional lives of its members. I hope to contribute to it through service on the APSA Council. If elected, I would seek to focus the profession’s attention on the ways that economic and educational background influence academic careers and opportunities. Scholarship in other disciplines suggest that successful academics are much more likely to come from more affluent and better educated families. In other disciplines, there is evidence that family background has powerful and self-reinforcing effects on graduate school admissions, PhD completion, academic hiring, and careers more generally. Accordingly, I would encourage APSA to systematically examine the influences of family background on opportunities and outcomes throughout political scientists’ careers; and where possible, consider ways to mitigate and ameliorate these effects.
COLIN ELMAN
Professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Statement of Views: I am grateful to be nominated to serve on the APSA council. I am thankful to be a member of an association that warmly welcomes a wide variety of methodological and substantive approaches, and which works so effectively to support the discipline. Over the last three decades I have been fortunate to participate in several APSA initiatives, including helping to stand up both the International History and Politics and the Qualitative and Multi‐method Research organized sections, and co-chairing APSA’s committee on Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT). If elected, I hope to encourage APSA to promulgate the wide range of expertise which makes our discipline uniquely well-placed to reflect on contemporary challenges.
JANE GINGRICH
Professor of comparative social policy at the University of Oxford. Her research interests broadly cover comparative political economy, social policy, education, and political parties.
Statement of views: I am extremely honored to be nominated to serve on the APSA Council. In a moment where universities across the globe are facing deep, and sometimes hostile, questioning, new funding pressures, and increasingly difficult environments for international students and scholars, I believe that APSA has a critical role to play in supporting the profession and academic freedom. This role involves defending our members’ ability to conduct their research and teaching and providing a strong collective voice supporting the value of research in political science. It also involves continued discussions about public engagement and providing resources to support working with policymakers. I am particularly keen to think about how in the changing political environment APSA can support scholars at the early career stages, continue to nurture diversity in the discipline and support first-generation and marginalized scholars, and support political science research on topics related to multiple forms of inequality, democracy, public health, and climate change, among other critical research areas. I also believe that APSA has a critical continued role to play in sustaining an international community in political science, supporting both international scholars in the United States and abroad.
BETINA WILKINSON
Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Politics and International Affairs department at Wake Forest University. Her research and teaching centers on questions of race, inequality, and public opinion.
Statement of Views: It is an honor to have been nominated to serve on the APSA Council. My career has benefited greatly from APSA. If given the opportunity to serve on the council, I would bring the perspective of a professor in a small, undergraduate-focused university and would continue to champion the issues that have driven my career. Such as advancing diversity across multiple dimensions—including race, ethnicity, gender, and class—and supporting undergraduate, graduate students, and assistant professors as they navigate the transition into the profession. Further, given the severe attacks on higher education on multiple fronts, it is essential for APSA to remain attentive to persistent inequalities in academic freedom, research funding, travel support, time for scholarship, and access to resources across the discipline. I will advocate for the APSA to engage seriously with the ongoing attacks on academic freedom and fiscal crisis in higher education—particularly as it affects under-resourced institutions—and to consider how the Association can better support scholars navigating these turbulent times. We must ensure that our discipline’s efforts remain dynamic—responsive both to a rapidly evolving political landscape, and to the needs of our increasingly diverse students and communities. If elected, I will take advantage of the opportunity to help sustain and expand APSA’s vital initiatives as a member of the council.
DEBORAH YASHAR
Director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) and the Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her scholarship addresses democracy and authoritarianism; violence; states in the developing world; citizenship rights; social movements; ethnic politics; and immigration politics.
Statement of Views: I am honored by the invitation to run for APSA Council. These are trying times when core academic freedoms and democratic norms are being challenged. As a council member, I would focus on three things. First, I would spotlight and defend our commitment to academic freedom, which is core to our mission, higher education, and society at large. APSA has an opportunity to work with other professional associations to express and defend this right for our faculty, students, and staff. Second, I would emphasize APSA’s global reach and institutional responsibility to safeguard inclusive and dynamic intellectual opportunities for our entire membership, including our international colleagues as well as our most vul nerable members. This is a time to emphasize inclusion within and across borders. Third, APSA must continue to support intellectual pluralism (with a diversity of theoretical and methodological perspectives) as a means to advance cutting-edge scholarship and teaching. ■
