Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Rosenfield Program at Grinnell College
About
Barbara Trish is a political scientist who teaches at Grinnell College, where she also directs the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights. Her doctorate is from Ohio State. At Grinnell College, she teaches courses on US politics, as well as statistics and research methods. Directing the Rosenfield Program, she oversees programing on — and off-campus that intersects with the program’s mission, including symposia and study tours. She has a special interest in technology — especially tracking and metric-driven phenomena — and its impact on politics, especially campaign politics but also life more generally. Given her location — firmly planted in the middle of Iowa — she has the luxury of examining up-close presidential nomination politics, not just every four years but on essentially an on-going basis.
Current Work:
Right now, Barbara Trish focuses on two projects. In the first, along with her colleague and collaborator Eliza Willis, she examines polarization in US politics by examining on how people process information. Using experimental methods, she explores whether exposing individuals to situations in which they question their own knowledge of an issue prompts them to moderate their positions. The second project, which has a long-term vision, employs intensive interviews with campaign staff to come to terms with both the work that they undertake and, equally as important, the impact this work has on their professional careers and personal lives. Anecdotal evidence suggests that campaign work may be inaccessible to broad categories of individuals, and it places extraordinary demands on staff, especially on those without financial means, boding poorly for US democracy.
Research Area Keyword(s):
US politics, political parties and campaigns, the presidency, technology
