Graduate Student Profile

Graduate Student Profile: Mary Adams

My name is Mary Adams, and I am a third year PhD student studying American politics and political methodology.

I was born and raised in south central Kentucky and went to college at Western Kentucky University (Go Tops). At WKU, I was interested in how the complex world of politics impacts the lives of ‘regular people,’ which led me to study political science and communication studies. I followed this with a Master of Public Administration and worked for two years after college for a community development government agency in Bowling Green, KY. It was always a dream and goal of mine to continue my education in political science; I chose to do so at IU because of the faculty, the interdisciplinary nature of the program, and the beautiful location, of course.

Mary Adams

At IU, I have focused on the political psychology of the relationships between Republicans and Democrats at the individual level in the US. This focus on psychology has included taking courses within the Psychology and Sociology departments, in addition to utilizing the great resources within the Political Science department like the American Politics Workshop, speaker series, the American Politics seminars, and attending the Midwest Political Science Association conference. These experiences helped me to develop a second-year research paper, which connected the psychology theories of construal level and psychological distance to current levels of partisan social polarization and animosity in the United States.

I plan to extend this research, as well as develop my experience in teaching, in preparation to teach college students about the power of politics on both policymaking and their personal lives, for the rest of my career.

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Department of Political Science

Graduate Student Profile