My name is Cameron DeHart and I'm a Lecturer of Political Science at the University of California, Merced. Before arriving at UC Merced, I received a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University, where my research and teaching focused on American and comparative politics.

 

As a proud first-generation college grad, I enjoy teaching and mentoring student with a passion for  intellectual discovery and public service. My teaching experience spans a range of undergraduate courses, from introductory classes on American politics and political methods, to upper-division classes on race and gender politics, urban and rural politics, California politics, Congress, the U.S. Presidency, and public opinion. 

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My research agenda centers on American politics with a focus on state and local politics, institutional change,  representation, and public policy. My previous work has been published in State Politics & Policy Quarterly (here) and by Hoover Institution Press (here). 

 

In my current research, I'm interested in questions about representation for marginalized groups, including Native Americans and Americans living in U.S. territories, at the federal, state, and local levels. One set of papers explores a) fights over the territorial delegates' rights in the U.S. House of Representative (here) and b) how to measure those members' ideology despite their lack of voting rights (draft available upon request). My newest project looks at how American communities adopted and then dropped (or didn't drop) Native American mascots for K-12 and higher ed institutions. 

 

At Stanford, my dissertation project explored the rise of directly elected offices in American states and counties from 1776 to 1900 (here), with a special focus on the rise of elected county sheriffs (here). My dissertation research was supported by the Department of Political Science, the Hoover Institution, and the Tobin Project. From 2019-2020, I also served as the Thomas D. Dee II Graduate Fellow at the Bill Lane Center for the American West.

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In addition to a doctorate, I also hold an M.A. in Political Science from Stanford, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from The Ohio State University. 

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