Nathan Kalmoe , a 2012 Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan, received Honorable Mention for the 2013 Best Dissertation in Political Psychology from the American Political Science Association (APSA) Organized Section Award for his dissertation, "Mobilizing Aggression in Mass Politics."  His committee was chaired by Donald Kinder along with Nancy Burns, Nicholas Valentino, and Ted Brader as committee members.  The chair of the APSA prize committee, Rick Lau (Rutgers), observed that they decided to take the fairly unusual step (for this and many sections) of naming a runner-up because Nathan's project was a "very close second choice in our decision making, so close that the committee insisted on formally acknowledging [Nathan's] work."

Dr. Kalmoe’s dissertation took a multiple-methods approach to investigating how subtle shifts in campaign messages interact with audience personality traits to influence electoral behavior. With experiments, content analysis, and survey data, he showed how common violent metaphors produce diverging effects on political participation, vote choice, and attitudes about violence in politics based on levels of trait aggression in audiences—a stable propensity for aggression in everyday life. This work was among the first to demonstrate the moderating role of personality on political framing effects, it revealed the breadth of violent metaphors in presidential campaigns over time, and it introduced aggression as a vital force shaping how citizens think and act in the political world.

Dr. Kalmoe is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at George Washington University's School of Media & Public affairs, working with Robert Entman and Kimberly Gross. His work to date has been published in Public Opinion Quarterly and Political Behavior. His research generally focuses on political communication effects, research methods, and the influence of everyday elements from life on political behavior. A few of his current projects examine the effects of flag imagery in campaigns, unobtrusive measures of public opinion in conflict-prone countries, and a historical analysis of voting during the American Civil War.

Please join us in congratulating Nathan!