“I research how countries interact with each other and how their political systems differ, focusing on topics such as democracy, elections, human rights, and international organizations.”
Kelly Morrison
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
My work in comparative politics and international relations explores how international organizations and democratic institutions help improve human rights and mitigate political violence. I use cross-national statistical analysis and original surveys in the United States, Turkey, and Brazil to study these topics.
An increasing number of countries are moving toward autocracy. Alongside this trend, many world leaders are expressing hesitancy to support international organizations that have promoted democracy and human rights. My work tries to understand the conditions under which international organizations and individual voters can mitigate these trends.
Why I do what I do
From an early age I’ve been interested in how countries differ from and interact with each other. Growing up in Southern California, near the US-Mexico border, I got to see firsthand how US policies toward Mexico changed over time and how politics shifted when crossing from one side to the other. I first became interested in political science as a way to understand these patterns.
Currently working on
My recent journal article titled “Why voters (sometimes) punish repression” is based on a survey experiment in the United States to understand when voters will punish candidates that support violence against protesters. It shows that voters often fail to punish candidates for supporting violence, particularly when repression is targeted against an out-group.