Recent Tufts Alums Publish Paper Examining Political Identities

The upcoming presidential election has brought issues of political division and partisanship to the forefront of American news and dinner table conversations. Thomas Hershewe, A23, and Asher Smith, A23, are exploring these divides in a paper published in the journal American Politics Research. Entitled "When Politics Override Place: How Political Affiliation Supersedes Rural Identity," the paper examines the relationship between rural identity and partisan identity, and demonstrates that when partisan identity is in conflict with rural identity, the partisan identity tends to dominate. Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies Brian Schaffner served as a mentor to Hershewe and Smith and says of their work: "I'm proud of these students not only for writing a good paper, but for taking the time to go through the peer review process to get it published in a respected journal."