Annual Meeting
We host an annual meeting where we invite our colleagues in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond to come together to present original civics research. We invite all civics research, broadly defined, but especially welcome research that focuses on pluralism in the United States.
Our second meeting will be held Friday November 6th and Saturday November 7th 2026. Details and schedule can be found here and below.
November 6th, 2026 – Friday
Venue: Benson Earth Sciences Conference Room 380 (near the football stadium)
11am-1pm PRIEC Business Meeting (Advisory Board Members only)
1pm-1:55pm – Politics, Groups, and Identities Journal Panel with Regina Branton
| 2:00-2:25 | Lisa Garcia Bedolla (Berkeley) | Why Organizing Matters for U.S. Democracy |
| 2:30-2:55 | Eddie Lucero (CSU Pueblo) | Honey, I’m Home: The Effect of Proximal Contact With Immigrants On Whites' Attitudes Toward State-level Immigration Policy |
| 3:00-3:25 | Julia Szabo (Penn State) | Understanding Latino-Majority Suburbs: How Immigrant Generation Shapes the Meaning of Suburban Place. |
| 3:30-3:55 | Steph DeMora (Stony Brook) | MYSTERY TALK |
| 4:00-5:00 | Poster Session | Come support undergrads doing civics research! |
We will have a reception at the Limelight Hotel’s outdoor bar area (1295 University Ave, Boulder, CO 80302) following the poster session. We can’t pay for drinks, but we’ll order appetizers.
November 7th, 2026 – Saturday
ձԳܱ:Ketchum A&S
We’ll be in the Political Science department (Ketchum A&S) on Saturday. Keep going straight down Colorado Avenue when you see the football stadium. 1B31 and 1B35 are both in the basement. 371 is on the 3rd floor. Elevators and stairs are both available.
Morning Session
Ketchum A&S -- Room 1B31
| 9:00-9:20 | Thomas Nappey (Paris) | The role of racial identity in shaping the pro-Palestinian movement in Michigan since October 7th. |
| 9:25-9:45 | Aubree Hardesty (CU) | Hers and His: Effect of Gendered Issue Ownership on Vote Share in U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial Elections |
| 9:50-10:10 | Santos Rivera-Cardona and George Quinn (Rutgers) | Puerto Rico: Is Independence for the Rich and Statehood for the Poor? |
| 10:15-10:35 | Nicole Maalouf (Utah) | Attributing discrimination in a sectarian system: Class, religion, and cleavage salience |
| 10:40-11:00 | Shayla Olson (ND) | Sacred Identity, Racial Conviction: Christian Group Attachment and White Americans' Racial Attitudes |
| 11:05-11:25 | Alex Zhao (Washington) | What Do Indigenous Candidates Campaign For? Six Decades of Navajo Elections |
Ketchum A&S -- Room 1B35
| 9:00-9:20 | Donald Caviness (CU) | The Effects of USMCA Implementation on Human and Economic Development in the Mexican Borderlands |
| 9:25-9:45 | Jennifer Perez Sandoval (Oklahoma) | Predicting Support for Immigration Attitudes Among Latinos: Economic Status as a Moderator of Acculturation |
| 9:50-10:10 | David Lopez Amaya (UNM) | A Fate Of Their Own: Predictors of Immigrant Linked Fate Among Latino Immigrants |
| 10:15-10:35 | Saliha Garcia (TAMU) | Blame and the State: Immigration, Blame Attribution, and U.S. Foreign Policy Preferences |
| 10:40-11:00 | Karina Alpayeva (UCR) | Tipping the Scales: Tipping the Scales: How Identity, Law, and Culture Shape Wage Justice in the United States and the United Kingdom |
| 11:05-11:25 | Jessala Grijalva (Harvard) | Why Groups Diverge: Latino Support for Trump Across Three Elections |
Ketchum A&S -- Room 371
| 9:00-9:20 | Kelsey Osborne-Garth (MSU) | What So Proudly We Hail: Political Symbols and Support for Explicit Racial Appeals. |
| 9:25-9:45 | Maria Ovalle (UNO) | Navigating disagreement: How Opposing Views Shape Immigration Political Constraint Among Latino Voters in the United States. |
| 9:50-10:10 | Iliya Liampert (MSU) | Sorted by Stereotypes: Race, Gender, and Public Stereotyping of Congressional Committee Suitability |
| 10:15-10:35 | David Adah-Ogoh (Lehigh University) | “A child of immigrants” (?): Analyzing Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) Representation in Contemporary Labour Party Discourses on Immigration |
| 10:40-11:00 | Claudette Medina (CU) | Blue Velvet: The Weaponization of Sex Work in Policy |
| 11:05-11:25 | Hannah Walker (UT Austin) and Marcel Roman (Harvard) | Political Backlash and Bureaucratic Behavior: Evidence from ICE |
LUNCH: Lunch will run from 11:30am to 2pm. We will provide a variety of sandwiches, including vegan and veggie options. The UMC and both also have other options if you want to explore campus.
Afternoon Session
Ketchum A&S -- Room 1B31
| 2:00-2:20 | Konstantinos N Kambouris (Utah) | Constructing the Homeland: Diasporic Identification in Global Politics |
| 2:25-2:45 | Anna Kowalski (CU) | Why Comply? Using Text Analysis to Understand State Compliance with CEDAW |
| 2:50-3:10 | Kani Murad (CU Denver) | The Politics of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, AKA Rojava |
| 3:15-3:45 | Iris Acquarone (ASU) | Who Runs When? National Contexts and Local Candidate Supply in U.S. Elections |
| 3:50-4:10 | Fred Gui (LSU) | Who Gets Policy Power? Racial Inequality in Congressional Staff Positions |
| 4:15-4:35 | Jesus E. Rojas Venzor (Princeton) | Can Foreign Policy Blunt Right-Wing Populist Momentum? |
Ketchum A&S -- Room 1B35
| 2:00-2:20 | Gustavo Pérez-Arrobo (CU) | Economic Booms and Institutional Change: Presidential Pathways to Democratic Backsliding in Latin America. |
| 2:25-2:45 | Pharrell Allen (UC Irvine) | Progressive Pump Fakes: The Limits of Rhetorical Representation in Legislative Follow Through |
| 2:50-3:10 | Neomi Rao (Chicago) | 21st Century Abolitionists and the Case for Reparations in Chicago |
Ketchum A&S -- Room 371
| 2:00-2:20 | Miranda Sullivan (UT Austin) | Respectability Politics and the Restructuring of Latino and Asian Panethnic Politics |
| 2:25-2:45 | Darline Washington (CU Denver) | The Politics of Protection: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Asylum in the United States |
| 2:50-3:10 | Alesha Lewis (Illinois) | Critical Consciousness in Context: Racial Trauma & Political Attitudes in African Americans |
| 3:15-3:45 | Gideon Ondap (Maryland) | The Many Shades of Fate: Racial Linked Fate and the Politics of Group Position |
| 3:50-4:10 | Devin Green (Chicago) | Black Power, Blue Power: Civil Rights and the Rise of Police Unions |
| 4:15-4:35 | Benjamin Yoel (Stanford) | Who Counts? Ethnicity and Support for Democratic Backsliding |
Saturday’s reception will also start at the Limelight Hotel’s outdoor bar area (1295 University Ave, Boulder, CO 80302).
Conference Photos
