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Jason Douglas Todd CV

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke Kunshan University
DKU Faculty CV

Overview


I am an Assistant Professor at Duke Kunshan University, where I teach political science and public policy. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University in 2020.

My research spans the fields of American and comparative politics to examine how political institutions shape the law, whether that be through the legislators who make it or the judges who interpret it. This work considers a broad array of topics, including legal citation networks, polarization in judicial opinions, judicial confirmations, congressional and state legislative committees, and responsiveness in authoritarian legislatures. I am also engaged in a book project concerning the U.S. Supreme Court and its role atop the federal judicial hierarchy, which I approach through the lens of the Court’s case selection process. Throughout this work, I employ a broad array of methodological approaches, including text-as-data, networks, simulation studies, field experiments, and archival work.

Office Hours


Drop by Monday (09:10-10:10 Beijing time) or Thursday (10:00-11:00), or email me to make an appointment or obtain a Zoom link.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke Kunshan University · 2020 - Present DKU Faculty
Assistant Professor of the Practice at Duke University · 2025 - Present DKU Studies

Recent Publications


The Donor Went Down to Georgia: Out-of-District Donations and Rivalrous Representation

Journal Article Political Behavior · March 1, 2025 Most of the money spent in U.S. congressional campaigns comes from donors residing outside the race’s electoral district. Scholars argue that legislators accepting out-of-district donations become “surrogate representatives” for outside donors. Yet researc ... Full text Cite

Do at-large elections reduce black representation? A new baseline for county legislatures

Journal Article Electoral Studies · April 1, 2024 Much work has shown that, at all levels, Black citizens tend to be descriptively underrepresented in government. We take up the question of Black descriptive representation at the level of the county legislature, gathering data on the composition of North ... Full text Cite

Can Elections Motivate Responsiveness in a Single-Party Regime? Experimental Evidence from Vietnam

Journal Article American Political Science Review · May 8, 2023 A growing body of evidence attests that legislators are sometimes responsive to the policy preferences of citizens in single-party regimes, yet debate surrounds the mechanisms driving this relationship. We experimentally test two potential responsiveness m ... Full text Open Access Cite
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Education, Training & Certifications


Duke University · 2020 Ph.D.