About
CAROL MERSHON is a Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. She is also a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Global Health at UVa. Mershon received her Ph.D. in Political Science, with Distinction, from Yale University. Her research focuses on intraparty competition, the dynamics of party systems, the politics of multiparty government, legislative politics, political institutions, and the political determinants of health.
Mershon’s articles have appeared in such journals as American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, Journal of Politics, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Politics & Gender, and Politics, Groups, & Identities. She is the co-editor of Italian Politics: Ending the First Republic(Westview 1994) and Political Parties and Legislative Party Switching(Palgrave Macmillan 2009), and is the author of The Costs of Coalition(Stanford 2002) and Party System Change in Legislatures Worldwide(with Olga Shvetsova, Cambridge 2013). Her forthcoming book is Formal Modeling in Social Science(with Olga Shvetsova, Michigan 2019).
Mershon seeks to contribute to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment at UVa and within academe more broadly. At UVa, she has served as the Politics Director of Diversity & Inclusion since 2015 and served on the Steering Committee of Arts & Science Directors of Diversity & Inclusion, May 2016-December 2018. She also has held leadership positions in UVa CHARGE, the NSF ADVANCE program at UVa: in AY2015-2016, she served as CHARGE Interim Co-PI / Program Director, and since 2015 has served on the CHARGE Implementation Team and Internal Advisory Board. Mershon’s 2014-2017 NSF grant with Co-PI Denise Walsh built collaboration across diverse groups. Mershon has served as the 2017-2019 Co-Ombuds for the American Political Science Association, 2019 Co-Ombuds for the American Educational Research Association, and 2019 Ombuds for both the Southern and the Midwest Political Science Associations. Mershon served as Political Science Program Director at the National Science Foundation, on detail from UVa, from 2009 to 2011. The recipient of three awards from the National Science Foundation, Mershon has also held three Fulbright grants and a Social Science Research Council Fellowship. She has held visiting positions at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, and Sciences Po Lille. In Spring 2015, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin. Mershon has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Politics. A former president of the Conference Group on Italian Politics and Society, Mershon serves on the International Scientific Board, Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica / Italian Political Science Review. In 2018, the Conference Group on Italian Politics and Society recognized Mershon with the Lifetime Achievement Award.