Dr. H. Whitt Kilburn

Contact

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
1124 Au Sable Hall
Grand Valley State University
1 Campus Drive
Allendale, MI 49401-9403
e-mail: kilburnw@gvsu.edu
web: http://faculty.gvsu.edu/kilburnw/
tel.: 616-331-8831

Education

Ph.D., Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005
M.P.A., Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, 1999
B.A., Political Science, Grinnell College, 1995

Courses

American Government and Politics
Political Analysis
Public Opinion
Political Psychology

Recent Publications and Working Papers

H. Whitt Kilburn. 2007. "Personal Values and Political Opinions." working paper under review for publication.

Virginia Gray, David Lowery, Jennifer Wolak, Erik Godwin, and H. Whitt Kilburn.  "Reconsidering the Countermobilization Hypothesis: Health Policy Lobbying in the American States". 2005. Political Behavior 27(2):99-132.   

H. Whitt Kilburn, “Does the Candidate Really Matter?” 2005. American Politics Research 33 (3):335-356.

Brian J. Fogarty, Nathan J. Kelly, and H. Whitt Kilburn, “Issue Attitudes and Survey Continuity across Interview Mode in the 2000 NES”. Spring 2005. Political Analysis.

Recent Presentations

American Political Science Association, 2007 annual meeting, Chicago. Panel presentation: "Threat, Human Values, and the New Authoritarianism."

American Political Science Association, 2006 annual meeting, Philadelphia.  Panel presentation: "Personal Values and Political Opinions: Evidence from the American Case". 

American Association for Public Opinion Research, 2006 annual meeting, Montreal.  Panel presentation: "Personal Values and Political Opinions".

Biography

I joined the political science faculty in August 2007.  Prior to arriving in Michigan, I received my Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and spent two years in Miami as an Assistant Professor at Florida International University.  My research centers around citizen politics.  Currently I explore the influence of personal values on public opinion; I am particularly interested in examining the political implications of social psychological theories of authoritarianism and egalitarian values.  And I've begun a project to examine how and why Americans' beliefs about global warming may change during the course of the 2008 presidential campaign.   

On a more personal note, I was born into a politically active family of "yellow dog" Democrats in Houston, Texas.  I graduated from an arts "magnet" high school, where I played classical violin for about three hours each day.  While I have plans to re-kindle my interest in music, on most weekends I spend time  exploring west Michigan and fixing up the Dutch colonial house I share with my wife and daughter.