Political Science at UB

SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Claude Welch and students.

SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science Claude Welch and students

The UB Department of Political Science is a tight-knit, research-oriented and collegial community. We offer both undergraduate and graduate students the exceptional opportunity to work closely with world-class faculty and gain hands-on experience in a globally significant discipline. 

Our Research

The award-winning Political Science faculty boast extensive records of producing high-impact, theoretically and methodologically rigorous research. In recent years, our faculty have authored or co-authored over 20 books while publishing many more edited, text or reference books, book chapters and articles in scholarly journals.

Of their more than 250 published articles, nearly 100 have appeared in journals ranked among the top 25 in the discipline, such as: American Political Science Review; American Journal of Political Science; Journal of Politics; World Politics; British Journal of Political Science; Comparative Politics; Comparative Political Studies; Political Research Quarterly; Political Science Quarterly; Public Opinion Quarterly; Journal of Conflict Resolution; International Studies Quarterly; Legislative Studies Quarterly; and American Politics Research.

Learn More About Political Science Research
Student Testimonials

"My UBPSC experience gave me the versatility and skills to be ready for an opportunity I never anticipated. And as I work today with a world-class team of researchers, consulting with communities on some of their most pressing challenges, I’m ever grateful for my campus experience at UB." – Joe Stefko, BA, MA, PhD in Political Science

Our Faculty

  • Jieun Lee
    2/20/23
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Abigail A. Matthews
    10/12/20
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Shawna K. Metzger
    9/15/22
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Frank C. Zagare
    4/11/24
    Scholarly Interests: International relations theory; conflict processes; interstate crisis, escalation and war; alliance dynamics; game theory
  • Jacob Neiheisel
    4/24/25
    Scholarly Interests: Political communication; election administration; religion and politics; political behavior; political parties
  • James Coleman Battista
    1/14/21
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Antoine Yoshinaka
    1/14/21
    Scholarly Interests: American politics; Congress; political parties; elections
  • Carla Martinez Machain
    4/11/24
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Harvey D. Palmer
    1/14/21
    Scholarly Interests: Comparative political behavior; voting and elections; econometrics; political sophistication and public opinion; research methods; international political economy; comparative political economy; public choice; game theory
  • Elena McLean
    8/16/21
    Scholarly Interests: International political economy; international institutions; environmental politics
  • Jacob Kathman
    1/14/21
    Scholarly Interests: Civil war processes; political violence; United Nations peacekeeping
  • James E. Campbell
    10/6/23
    Scholarly Interests: American macropolitics; political polarization; campaigns and elections; voting behavior; American political parties; election forecasting; public opinion; empirical democratic theory; political participation; presidential politics; electoral systems
  • D. Munroe Eagles
    10/6/23
    Scholarly Interests: Political and electoral geography; Canadian politics; Canadian-American relations; comparative political parties and groups; West European politics
  • Charles M. Lamb
    10/15/19
    Scholarly Interests: Public law (constitutional law, civil liberties, judicial politics); public policy (policy making, implementation, civil rights, housing); American politics (presidency, courts, urban and ethnic politics); politics and history (presidency; bureaucracy; congress; interest groups).
  • Collin Anderson
    10/5/21
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Jay N. Krehbiel
    8/20/24
    Scholarly Interests: Civil war processes; political violence; United Nations peacekeeping
  • Michelle A. Benson
    1/14/21
    Scholarly Interests: International relations; conflict processes; international organizations; international trade and cooperation; social movements; ethnic conflict; econometrics
  • Sam R. Bell
    9/15/22
    Scholarly Interests: Legislative politics; state politics; formal modeling; quantitative methods
  • Vesna Danilovic
    5/10/21
    Scholarly Interests: International relations theory; international conflict; strategic bargaining; domestic institutions; foreign policy; quantitative research methods in international relations
  • Rachael K. Hinkle
    1/14/21
    Scholarly Interests: Public law; judicial politics; constitutional law; computational text analysis; quantitative methods
  • Timothy Hellwig
    9/15/23
    Scholarly Interests: Executive approval; economic voting; poverty and precarity; policy responsiveness
  • Shawn J. Donahue
    9/15/23
    Scholarly Interests: Voting rights and representation; Constitutional law; campaigns and elections
  • Conor M. Dowling
    9/15/23
    Scholarly Interests: Mass and elite political behavior in the U.S. context; Public opinion; Electoral competition, representation, and public policy; Experimental methods

Degrees