Congratulations to Nicholas A. Valentino for being appointed the Donald R. Kinder Collegiate Professor of Political Science!

A Collegiate Professorship is one of the highest honors the college awards to active tenured faculty members at the full professor rank who warrant the distinctive recognition that a named professorship carries.

Collegiate Professorships are offered to colleagues who are exemplars of our aspirations for excellence in all areas of our intellectual life together. Nominees are outstanding in their scholarship and/or creative endeavors, and in both their undergraduate and graduate teaching. They provide significant leadership within the unit, the college, and the university, as well as in their scholarly fields and professions. Nominees also foster equitable, respectful, and inclusive climates in all their work. Each Collegiate Professorship carries a unique name, selected by the candidate in consultation with the college.

Nicholas A. Valentino is the newly appointed Donald R. Kinder Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Research Professor in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. He currently serves as a PI of the American National Election Studies (ANES). He was President of the International Society for Political Psychology from 2019-2020 and has served on the American National Election Studies Board since 2010, becoming Associate PI in 2018. Valentino specializes in political psychological approaches to understanding public opinion formation, socialization, information seeking, and electoral participation. His work employs experimental methods, surveys, and content analyses of political communication. The research has focused on the intersecting roles of racial attitudes and public emotions, especially the distinct power of anger versus fear. He has also written extensively on the causes and consequences of empathy for ethnic outgroups.

Donald R. Kinder is the Philip E. Converse Collegiate Professor of Political Science Emeritus, professor of psychology, and research professor in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. Professor Kinder first came to the University of Michigan in 1981, after working at Yale University as an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Psychology. Professor Kinder's scholarly work focuses on political opinion, racial politics, and democracy. His current research interests include rehabilitating the concept of ethnocentrism and developing a psychological theory of framing. Professor Kinder has published extensively and his book, News That Matters: Television and American Opinion has won many awards including being named a New York Times Notable Book of 1988. Kinder received his B.A. from Stanford in 1969, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1975.