Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Tariq Ravasia

Issue opinions and the growth of legislative polarization

My summer research compiles reviews of past legislation across a variety of issue areas for use in survey research. The aim of this project is to compare the polarization of the present legislature to past legislatures to determine if polarization is, as many believe, growing rapidly in recent years. This project uses a novel method that analyzes congressional behavior over the same legislation at different points in time, which allows us to separate the effect of which legislation comes to a vote from actual ideological changes in the composition of modern legislatures.

Message To Sponsor

i would like to deeply thank donors to the URAP program for generously allowing me the opportunity to participate in this program. It meant so much to be able to continue work in a field which I care deeply about, and I wouldn't have been able to do so without the financial support of URAP donors. I loved this experience and it felt as though it provided me with the skills to answer so many more questions about politics in the future. I feel much better prepared for a career in political science as a result of this program.