Omar Wasow

Curriculum Vitae

• My current c.v.

Papers:

• “Text as Behavior,” Political Analysis. Published online May 7, 2026. Altmetric Attention Score ranks article #10 of 660 articles from Political Analysis and in top 1% of 33M research documents tracked.
• “Plutopopulism: Wealth and Trump’s Financial Base,” with Sean Kates, Eric Manning and Tali Mendelberg. American Political Science Review. Published online April 2, 2025. Altmetric Attention Score ranks article #13 of 3,713 articles from APSR and in top 0.2% of 33M research documents tracked.
• “Agenda Seeding: How 1960s Black Protests Moved Elites, Public Opinion and Voting,” American Political Science Review 114, no. 3 (2020): 638–59. Online Appendix. Google Scholar estimates 675+ citations (including prior drafts). Altmetric Attention Score ranks article #1 of 3,713 articles in APSR and in top 0.01% of 33M research documents tracked.
• “Race as a ‘Bundle of Sticks’: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics,” Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 19:499-522 (Volume publication date May 2016). Google Scholar estimates 575+ citations (including working paper). Altmetric Attention Score ranks article #80 of 596 articles from ARPS and in top 2% of 33M research documents tracked.
• “Can Tweets Kill a Movie? An Empirical Evaluation of the Bruno Effect,” with Alex Baron, Marlon Gerra, Katharine Lauderdale, Han Zhang. Computer Human Interaction 2010, April 10–15, 2010. Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Working Papers:

• “Linked Fate to Whom: Solidarity and Exclusion in Black Politics,” with Brandon McGhee.
  Two-thirds of Black Americans affirm linked fate, but this near-consensus masks a fundamental divide. We argue the standard measure conflates distinct orientations toward the boundaries of group belonging. Using a large survey of Black Americans (N=3,102), we find that roughly 40% combine high intragroup and cross-group solidarity, predicting 5–12pp higher support for marginalized subgroups, while 26% show high intragroup solidarity alone, with no additional support for Black gays and lesbians. A survey experiment (N=1,050) reveals that support for a liberal Black candidate drops 9–17pp when described as Muslim or gay, and linked fate alone does not moderate this penalty. However, high linked fate respondents with low religiosity show minimal bias, while those with high religiosity show substantial bias—consistent with masked heterogeneity in the standard measure. The question is not only whether fate is linked, but to whom.

• “Veiled Power: How Rosenwald Schools Quietly Shaped the Civil Rights Movement,” with Jacob Grumbach.
  What precipitates the collapse of seemingly durable social orders like Jim Crow? During the 1920s, approximately 5,000 schools were built across the rural South through a partnership between Booker T. Washington, philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, and Black communities who raised matching funds and donated land. Local elites saw vocational training that would preserve the racial order, but counties with more Rosenwald Schools experienced greater civil rights protest activity in the 1960s. We argue Black educators used accommodationist cover to build veiled capacity: organizational infrastructure for collective action behind a veil of compliance. Mediation analysis reveals that pre-existing Black social capital predicted protest through Rosenwald teacher placements, not overall Black enrollment. Instrumental variable models suggest the effect is not driven by community selection. Moving from no Rosenwald teachers to the 75th percentile predicts 45% more protest participation. Even under conditions of domination, civic capacity can accumulate where elites cannot see.

Film:

• Unrest, 2017. Executive Producer of Sundance award-winning and Oscar-shortlisted documentary directed by Jennifer Brea. Film certified for continuing medical education credits and used in both research and clinical settings. Watch on YouTube.

Awards

• Georgia Lee Fellow in the Society of Hellman Fellows, UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA. 2024.
• Stanley Kelley, Jr. Teaching Award, Department of Politics, Princeton University. 2019.
• Bobst Faculty Research Grant, Bobst Center, Princeton University. 2015-16.
• Dissertation Fellowship, Project on Justice, Welfare and Economics, Harvard University. 2011-12.
• Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellowship, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University. 2010-11.
• Henry Crown Fellowship, Aspen Institute. 2008-10.
• Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation. 2007-10.

Teaching

• PS140O: Projecting Power 2025
  • Lecture course on ethnic politics that combines films and traditional political science texts.
  • Course site with syllabus and slides
  • Evaluations:
    • “Instructor enhanced learning…?” 6.74 out of 7
    • “Instructor created an environment where I felt included…?” 6.74 out of 7
    • Full course evaluation
• FRS165: Projecting Power
  • Description: First-year seminar on ethnic politics that combined traditional political science texts and film
  • Syllabus
  • Evaluations:
    • 100% rated class “excellent” or “very good”
    • Overall rating: 4.8 out of 5
    • Full course evaluation
• POL346: Applied Quantitative Analysis
  • Description: Second semester undergrad stats
  • Syllabus, slides and handouts
  • Evaluations in 2020:
    • 100% would recommend course to other students (77% “strongly recommend” and 23% “recommend”)
    • Overall rating: 4.8 out of 5
    • Full course evaluation for 2020
  • Evaluations in 2019:
    • 95% would recommend course to other students (81% “strongly recommend” and 14% “recommend”)
    • Overall rating: 4.7 out of 5
    • Full course evaluation for 2019
• GOV30: American Government (while grad student at Harvard)
  • Description: Intro to American Government
  • Evaluations:
    • Awarded Certificate of Distinction in Teaching
    • Overall rating 4.5 out of 5
    • Full course evaluation

Book Project:

• The Protester’s Dilemma: How 1960s Black Protests Influenced Media and Politics.

Other Working Papers:

• “Conditional ethnocentrism: Experimental evidence from protests in the United States.”
• “How Anti-Immigrant Policies and Rhetoric Angers and Mobilizes Latinos,” with Nicholas Valentino, Ali Valenzuela and Matt Barreto. (Presented at APSA 2019)
• “Affluent politics and the rise of Trump,” with Tali Mendelberg and Sean Kates.
• “The Boundaries of Black Voting,” with Brandon McGhee.
• “Election Effects, Perceptions of Immigration Context and Self-Reported General and Mental Health among Latinos and Whites in the United States,” with Ali Valenzuela and Krista Perriera.

Google Scholar

• My Google Scholar page.