Christian Grose

Biography

Christian Grose is Professor of Public Policy; and Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California. He is the Academic Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy. He served as the Director of the Political Science and International Relations Ph.D. program in USC Dornsife College from 2015-18. He is editor of the journal Research & Politics. In 2020, he led a team that administered the USC Schwarzenegger Institute nonpartisan democracy grants to local election administrators to open new polling places; and he is now conducting research about how best to improve voter access and voting rights based around this community-engaged work.

He is the author of more than 50 articles, chapters, policy reports, and other works about American politics; legislative politics; public administration; public policy; race and ethnicity; voting rights; and political representation; including in the American Political Science Review; the American Journal of Political Science; the Journal of Politics; the British Journal of Political Science; Political Research Quarterly; Legislative Studies Quarterly; and Political Behavior. His book Congress in Black and White (Cambridge University Press) won the best book on race and politics award from the American Political Science Association.  His research has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, the MIT Election Data Science Center, and others. In total, he has raised nearly $3 million for research and other activities at USC.  Grose’s research has been profiled in the Washington Post, the New York Times, National Public Radio, and other media outlets.

Grose directs the Democracy Lab, where researchers, students, and policy practitioners work together to generate new ideas to reform American democracy. His recent work examines behavioral and social choices made by public officials and public election administrators, and how they are constrained by institutions and law. He is also an expert in political reforms and voting rights, including independent redistricting commissions. His research often uses field and survey experimental techniques to answer questions about public policy, political institutions, and the behavior of public administrators and elected officials. Some of this research involves partnerships with practitioners and the community. Grose has served as an expert consultant and witness in redistricting and voting rights cases, including as the voting rights statistical consultant for 2 of the 10 largest counties in the United States in 2021.

Dr. Grose has been named the Herman Brown Distinguished Scholar, an award given annually to a U.S. political scientist. He also received the 2022 best article published in the Journal of Politics; received the 2020 best article published in Political Research Quarterly; and received the CQ Press award for the best paper on legislative studies presented at the American Political Science Association meeting. He co-chairs the 2023 Midwest Political Science Association meeting.

Grose has experience conducting innovative teaching and scholarship via both virtual online and in-person platforms; and regularly partners with public officials, policy makers, and academic researchers in his teaching, scholarship, and administrative leadership.

Selected Publications

• Sinclair, J. A., Alvarez, R. M., Sinclair, B., & Grose, C. R. (2024). Electoral innovation and the Alaska system: Partisanship and populism are associated with support for top-4/ranked-choice voting rules. Political Research Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241263585.
• Bertelli, A., Riccucci, N., Canterelli, P., Cucciniello, M., Grose, C., John, P., Linos, E., Thomas, A., & Williams, M. (2022). The (Missing?) Role of Institutions in Behavioral Public Administration: A Roundtable Discourse. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 5(1).
• Grose, C. R., Lopez, P., Sadhwani, S., & Yoshinaka, A. (2022). Social Lobbying. The Journal of Politics, 84(1), 367–382.