Welcome! I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. In May 2025, I graduated with a Ph.D. in Political Science (with departmental distinction) from Yale University.
I study the psychological, informational, and rhetorical underpinnings of polarization in American political behavior. One stream of my research investigates how various forms of political communication (i.e., sermon rhetoric, populist appeals, etc.) shape political preferences. Another strand of my research probes the role of information (i.e., information about social movements or inequality) in structuring public opinion and policy preferences. A final line of my research explores solutions to mass polarization. This includes a project that tests Americans’ willingness to compromise on a series of multi-dimensional policy tradeoffs (i.e., a conservative immigration policy and a liberal abortion policy, etc.).
My research is published in American Politics Research, Environmental Politics, and the Yale Journal of International Affairs. My research on sermon rhetoric and White evangelical support for the Republican Party has an R&R at Political Behavior, and my research probing the effect of populist appeals on democratic backsliding also has an R&R at Political Behavior. I have presented my research at a wide range of organizations, including the American Political Science Association, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University. Funding for my research has been provided by the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and other organizations.
Teaching is a great passion of mine! This fall, I will be the instructor of record for a course at Stanford entitled Liberalism and Populism in the American Political Economy. At Yale, I obtained Yale’s Teaching Certificate and served as a graduate teaching fellow for six courses: Capitalism and Crisis, Introduction to American Politics (twice), Introduction to Comparative Politics, Introduction to Statistics, and Strategic Models of Politics.
I received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration at William and Mary as well as a Master’s of Public Administration at the University of Pennsylvania. Before entering academia, I completed a Leadership Development Program at a Fortune 500 company called Amerigroup (now part of Elevance Health). I also served as the Faculty of Health Sciences Program Coordinator and Office of Undergraduate Studies Business Manager at Virginia Tech.
Contact:
Paul.Lendway@yale.edu