Politics Faculty
- Title
- Associate Professor
- Division Social Sciences Division
- Department
- Politics Department
- Affiliations Legal Studies
- Phone 831-459-2421
- Website
- Office Location
- Merrill College Academic Building, Office 113
- Office Hours On Leave
- Mail Stop Merrill/Crown Faculty Services
- Mailing Address
- 1156 High Street
- Santa Cruz California 95064
- Faculty Areas of Expertise United States Politics and Government, Politics, Electoral Politics, US History
- Courses Poli 20: Introduction to American Politics, Poli/LGST 120B: Society and Democracy in American Political Development, Poli 127: Parties and Partisanship in American Politics, Poli 128: American Elections and Voting Behavior, Poli 190M: Politics in the American States, Poli 223: Topics in American Political Development
Research Interests
American Political Development, Political History, Voting and Elections, State Politics and Policymaking, Political Parties, Partisanship, and Political Institutions.
Biography, Education and Training
Melanie Jean Springer received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2006. She began her academic career at Washington University in Saint Louis, and joined the Politics faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the Fall of 2013. She specializes in American Politics. Her research and teaching interests include American political development, political history, voting and elections, state politics and policymaking, political parties, partisanship, and political institutions. Her book How the States Shaped the Nation: American Electoral Institutions and Voter Turnout, 1920-2000 was published in 2014 with the University of Chicago Press (Chicago Studies in American Politics). This work examines the effects of numerous state-level electoral institutions on 20th century voter turnout rates in the American states. Her research has also been published by Brookings Institution Press, and in Political Research Quarterly, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship.
