Faculty
James E. Campbell
UB Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., Syracuse University
Email: jcampbel@buffalo.edu
Phone: 716-645-8452
Office: 511 Park Hall
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Areas of Teaching and Research Interests:
Campaigns and Elections, Voting Behavior, American Political Parties, American Macropolitics, Election Forecasting, Public Opinion, Campaign Finance, Political Participation, Presidential Politics, Presidential-Congressional Relations, and Electoral Systems.
Courses Taught:
PSC 306 - The American Presidency
PSC 344 - Presidential Campaigns
PSC 376 - Politics and Money
PSC 436 - Citizen Participation
PSC 490 - Honors Seminar: Political Polarization in America
PSC 495 - Senior Seminar: American Macropolitics
PSC 505 - Seminar on American Politics
PSC 665 - Voting & Public Opinion
PSC 664 - The American Presidency
PSC 761 - American Political Frontiers: Campaign Finance Reform
PSC 761 - American Political Frontiers: American Macropolitics
Current Research:
Election forecasting, the causes of political polarization, the economic records of the presidents, and a book project on Evaluating the Presidents.
Brief Bio:
James E. Campbell is a UB Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. He is the author of three university press books and more than 80 journal articles and book chapters. His most recent book, The American Campaign: U.S. Presidential Campaigns and the National Vote, was published in its second edition by Texas A&M University Press. He also co-edited Before the Vote and edited eight journal symposia. Professor Campbell served as Chair of the Political Forecasting Group (a related group of the APSA), as President of Pi Sigma Alpha (the national political science honor society), as a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association, and as a program director of the Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation. He has been a member of six editorial boards of political science journals and seven executive councils of political science organizations. Prior to joining the UB faculty in 1998, he was on the faculties of the University of Georgia from 1980 to 1988 and Louisiana State University from 1988 to 1998. He was Chair of the Department of Political Science at UB from 2006 to 2012.
Selected Recent Research (See Personal Webpage for more publications and data):
“The Miserable Presidential Election of 2012: A First Party-Term Incumbent Survives,” The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics, v.10, n.4, (February 2013) pp.20-8.
“A First Party-Term Incumbent Survives: The Fundamentals of 2012,” In Barack Obama and the New America: The 2012 Election and the Changing Face of Politics, edited by Larry J. Sabato (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013) chapter 3, pp. 59-73.
“Forecasting the Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2012: The Trial-Heat and the Seats-in-Trouble Models,” PS: Political Science & Politics, v.45, n.4 (October 2012), 630-34. Assessment Note: “Closeness Counts in Horse Shoes, Dancing, and Forecasting,” PS: Political Science & Politics, v.46, n.1 (January 2013), pp. 40-1.
“Political Forces on the Obama Presidency: From Election ‘08 to Governing,” In The Obama Presidency: Appraisals and Prospects, edited by, B. Rockman, A. Rudalevige, and C. Campbell (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2011), http://www.cqpress.com/product/Obama-Presidency-Appraisals.html
"The Economic Records of the Presidents: Party Differences and Inherited Economic Conditions," The Forum, v.9, n. 1, (April 2011) and a response to critics in "The President's Economy: Parity in Presidential Party Performance," Presidential Studies Quarterly, v.42, n.4 (December 2012), 811-18. See the webpage on this issue.
“The Theory of Conditional Retrospective Voting: Does the Presidential Record Matter Less in Open Seat Elections?” The Journal of Politics, v.72, n.4 (October 2010), pp. 1083-1095. With Bryan J. Dettrey and Hongxing Yin.
“Explaining Politics, Not Polls: Examining Macropartisanship with Recalibrated NES Data,” Public Opinion Quarterly, v.74, n.4 (October 2010), pp.616-42.
last updated, 2/21/13.