Graduate Student Fellows

In Fall 2021 the Citrin Center initiated its Fellows Program, created to recruit promising scholars in public opinion research to UC Berkeley.  The Graduate Admissions Committee for the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science identified outstanding applicants with the relevant interests to be Citrin Fellows.  Fellows are provided with a $2000 research grant to help launch their research.

2023 Citrin Graduate Fellows

Andrew Zhao is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He is
broadly interested in the interplay between race & ethnicity, immigration, and political
participation, with a current focus on Asian American political participation. Andrew graduated
from the University of Toronto with an Honors Bachelor of Arts. At the University of Toronto, he
earned the Suzanne and Edwin Goodman Prize, a departmental honor awarded to the top
graduating student in the political science specialization. Before coming to UC Berkeley, he
worked in public opinion research in Canada.

Sara Jozer is a feminist social scientist with a focus on American politics and political behavior.
Her research interests broadly encompass campaigns and elections, with a particular emphasis
on gender and voter behavior. She is especially interested in voter responses to women and
members of other marginalized groups as electoral candidates. She holds a BS in Social Policy
from Northwestern University and an MA in Political Science from the University of Chicago, and
worked in Democratic fundraising for several years before coming to Berkeley. Her work has
been published in the Los Angeles Times and Political Behavior.

2022 Citrin Graduate Fellows

Christian Caballero is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated from New York University with a B.A. in Politics (with Honors) and a B.A. in Sociology (2022). He has worked as a research assistant for NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics, as well as for faculty in both NYU and Berkeley’s Departments of Political Science. He was previously an APSA Ralph Bunche Research Scholar (2021). His research interests are broadly in American Politics and Political Behavior, where he is specifically interested in the study of social interactions, online information environments, and how they influence collective mass behavior.

John Konicki is a first-year PhD student at Berkeley, with a focus on American politics, political behavior, and public opinion. His specific research interests lie at the intersection of ideology, identity, and political polarization. John graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2019 with a B.A. in political science and a minor in Russian studies. After graduating, he worked as a economic policy research associate at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he contributed to analysis and commentary on immigration, zoning policy, space exploration, and science research funding.

2021 Citrin Graduate Fellows

Matt Easton graduated from Brigham Young University in 2019 as the Political Science valedictorian. His article “The Democracy of Dating: How Political Affiliations Shape Relationship Formation” was published in the Journal of Experimental Political Science. His research portfolio has received a variety of accolades, including first place in Civic Engagement at the Mary Lou Fulton Undergraduate Research Conference. He has worked as a research assistant to Dr. John Holbein and as fellow to the Center of the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED). He interned with the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and researched public policy in New Delhi, India. Matt recently worked as a political campaign organizer. He is particularly interested in research questions pertaining to political polarization in the United States. His broad research interests are in American politics, public opinion, and political behavior.

Jack Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research
UC Berkeley
The Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science
798 Social Sciences Building #1950
Berkeley, CA 94720-1950
citrincenter@berkeley.edu