Professor Chris Dawes (New York University) will speak on Biology and Politics: Promises and Challenges, Friday, November 30, 2:00 – 3:00 pm, Thomson House, 3650 McTavish (above Dr. Penfield). Reception to follow.
Christopher Dawes is Assistant Professor of Politics at New York University. The goal of his research is to identify and clarify the sources of individual differences in political preferences and behaviors. His work utilizes genetically informative samples, as well as experimental methods, in order to better understand why some individuals participate in politics while others do not. Christopher is currently working on a project studying these individual differences within and across several developed countries. His research has been published in the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Political Science Review, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Political Research Quarterly, and PLoS ONE.
Sponsored by the Inter-university Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (CSDC; http://csdc-cecd.mcgill.ca/) which is funded by the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (CSDC) brings together a group of scholars from four Québec universities. The centre includes scholars and students from both Communications and Political Science departments, and brings a cross-disciplinary perspective to bear on the challenges facing democratic citizenship in a rapidly changing world.
Established in 2008, CSDC researchers address a wide range of questions relating to the relationship between citizens and the political process. How do citizens decide who to vote for? Can citizens hold governments accountable? How do citizens form attitudes about public policy? What accounts for political participation, or, perhaps more importantly, a lack of political participation? What are the implications of social diversity for engagement, or policy support? These and related questions play a central role in the work pursued by scholars at the CSDC.