Kassra AR Oskooii, PhD
Email:
kassrao@gmail.com
Expertise: Political Behavior, Voting Rights and Redistricting, Demographics, Race and Ethnic Politics, Political Psychology, Public Opinion
I am a tenured Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations and Provost Teaching Fellow at the University of Delaware (UD) with research expertise in American Politics, Political Methodology, and Race and Ethnic Politics. I am also an affiliated faculty at UD's Data Science Institute, Masters of Science in Data Science, Center for Political Communication, and Center for the Study of Diversity.
My research and teaching primarily focuses on the interplay between contextual and psychological factors shaping the political opinions and behaviors of high and low status group members, with a particular emphasis on experiences and perceptions of discrimination.
I also have research and teaching expertise in the area of political representation, racial/ethnic voting patterns, demographics, and redistricting, having consulted jurisdictions as it pertains to the 2021 redistricting cycle. As a voting rights and redistricting expert, I have provided expertise to organizations such as American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Common Cause, Fair Districts Now, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), League of Women Voters, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), and UCLA's Voting Rights Project.
In the area of redistricting, I have drawn and evaluated single-member district plans using state-specific and traditional redistricting principles such as population parity, compactness, core retention, preservation of political subdivisions and communities of interest, compliance with the Voting Rights Act, and partisan bias/competitiveness. Finally, I have published articles on racially polarized voting patterns as it pertains to voting rights litigation, and contributed to the development of the eiCompare and eiExpand R Packages.
My research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed academic journals such as Political Behavior, Political Psychology, Public Opinion Quarterly, British Journal of Political Science, Sociological Methods and Research, Perspectives on Politics, Electoral Studies, Urban Affairs Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, Ethnic Migration Studies, Journal of Public Policy, and Politics, Groups, and Identities.
For more information about my academic record, please refer to my C.V. or my Google Scholar profile.