THESSALIA MERIVAKI Department of Political Science and Public Administration 459 Hardy Rd, 105 Bowen Hall Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: 352-871-51260 Email: lia.merivaki@pspa.msstate.edu EDUCATION University of Florida Ph.D., Political Science, December 2016 Research Fields: American Politics, Political Methodology, and Public Policy Doctoral Dissertation: America Registers at Different Speeds: The Differential Administration of Voter Registration Reforms across the American States. Committee: Daniel A. Smith (Chair), Michael Martinez, David Hedge, Michael McDonald, Larry Kenny M.A., Political Campaigning, 2011 University of Sheffield, UK M.A., International Studies, 2008 University of Macedonia, Greece B.A., Political Studies and Diplomacy, 2006 ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT Assistant Professor in American Politics, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, 2017- University of South Florida, St. Petersburg Visiting Assistant Professor in American Politics, Department of History and Politics, 2016 University of Florida Instructor, Department of Political Science (Fall 2010, Summer/Fall 2014, Fall/Spring 2015/6) Teaching Assistant, Department of Political Science (Fall/Spring 2012/3, Fall/Spring/Summer 2013/4, Summer/Fall 2015, Summer 2016) Research Assistant, Department of Political Science (Fall 2011, Summer 2014, Spring 2015) Research Assistant, Center for European Studies (Spring 2010, Summer 2013, Fall 2013-Summer 2014)
Project Manager, Department of Political Science Forum on Conducting Florida Elections, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Democracy Fund, Department of Political Science (Spring 2015) Project Manager, Center for African Studies Trans-Saharan Elections Project, funded by the U.S. Department of State s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Center for African Studies (Spring 2010-Summer 2012) RESEARCH INTERESTS Election Reform Election Administration Election Data Transparency Electoral Institutions Policy Analysis Political Behavior GRANTS Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) MIT Election Data and Science Lab, New Initiatives Grant, Summer 2018 ($18,000) Voter list maintenance within a hybrid structure of data management: The case of Mississippi (PI) MIT Election Data and Science Lab, New Initiatives Grant, Summer 2017 ($5,000) Investigating Voter List Maintenance Practices in Mississippi (PI) Center for Community Engaged Learning Fellowship, Summer 2018 ($1,000) University of South Florida, St. Petersburg Center for Civic Engagement Course Development Grant, Spring 2017 ($1,000) PUBLICATIONS Thessalia Merivaki. Access Denied? Assessing Voter Registration Rejections in Florida, State Politics and Policy Quarterly (forthcoming). Thessalia Merivaki and Daniel A. Smith. 2016. Casting and Verifying Provisional Ballots in Florida, Social Science Quarterly 97(3): 729-747. Michael P. McDonald, and Thessalia Merivaki. 2015. Voter Turnout in Presidential Nominating Contests, The Forum 13(4): 597-622. BOOK MANUSCRIPTS Merivaki, Thessalia. The Administration of Voter Registration: Patterns and Variation Across the American States, Palgrave-McMillan. [Scheduled publication date, December 2019].
BOOK CHAPTERS Daniel A. Smith, Brian Amos, Carl Klarner, Daniel Maxwell, Thessalia Merivaki, and Tyler Richards, Rigged? Assessing Election Administration in Florida's 2016 General Election, in Matthew Corrigan and Mike Binder, eds., The 2016 Presidential Election in Florida: Ground Zero for America s New Political Revolution. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. [Scheduled publication date, Spring 2018]. Thessalia Merivaki, Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. 2016. American Governance, Stephen L. Schechter et al. ed. Vol. 3. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Macmillan Reference USA/Cengage Learning: 71-76. RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Thessalia Merivaki, Learning from the Outliers: Discrepancies in Voter List Maintenance Across the States. Thessalia Merivaki, Uncovering Implementation Problems in Voter Registration: The Case of Pre-registration in Florida. Thessalia Merivaki and Daniel A. Smith, Who are Provisional Voters? Evidence from North Carolina. Thessalia Merivaki and Enrijeta Shino, More than a Dummy: Youth Voter Participation and State Election Reforms. CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTATIONS Managing Voter Registration Rolls the Hybrid Way: The Case of Mississippi, State Politics and Policy Annual Conference, College Station, June 6-9, 2018 (with Sean Conner). Who are Provisional Voters? Evidence from North Carolina, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, Chicago, April 5-8, 2018 (with Daniel A. Smith). Tweeting with a Russian Accent: Assessing Twitter Patterns During the 2016 Presidential Election, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 5-8, 2018 (with Ioannis Ziogas). Uncovering Implementation Problems in Voter Registration: The Case of Pre-registration in Florida, Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, January 4-6, 2018. Who are Provisional Voters? Evidence from North Carolina, Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, January 4-6, 2018 (with Daniel A. Smith). The Supply of Voter Registration in Florida: How and When One Registers Matters, Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, January 12-14, 2017. Beyond NVRA Compliance: State Responses to the Demand for Voter Registration. State Politics and Policy Conference, Dallas Texas, May 16-19, 2016.
The Contributions and Conundrums of Technology: The Election Administration and Voting Survey and Data Reporting Consistency. The Evolution of Election Administration since the VRA 1965-2015 Symposium, Auburn, September 15, 2015. Some Register Better: Assessing County Variation in Voter Registration Rates in Florida, State Politics and Policy Conference, Sacramento, May 28-30, 2015. Who Registers? Assessing County Variation in Voter Registration Rates in Florida, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 15-19, 2015. Is Young More than a Bracket: Youth Voter Participation and State Election Reforms, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 15-19, 2015 (with Enrijeta Shino). More than a Bracket: Youth Voter Participation and State Election Reforms, Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, January 15-17, 2015 (with Enrijeta Shino). Explaining Voter Registration Rejections, State Politics and Policy Conference, Bloomington, May 12-15, 2014. Partisanship or Electoral Politics? Casting and Verifying Provisional Ballots in Florida, Symposium on Regulation in the U.S. States, Florida State University, Tallahassee, February 21, 2014 (with Daniel A. Smith). Surviving the Cut: Towards a Causal Explanation of Recall Success, Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, Orlando, January 3-5, 2013. Casting and Verifying Provisional Ballots in Florida, Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, Orlando, January 3-5, 2013 (with Daniel A. Smith). Surviving the Cut: Towards a Causal Explanation of Recall Success, Poster Session, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, Chicago, April 11-13, 2013. INVITED TALKS Invited Talk, Who are Provisional Voters? Evidence from North Carolina, Inclusion and Integrity in Election Administration Symposium, Auburn University, October 15-17, 2017. Invited Talk, Limitations of Online Voter Registration and Implications for Future Reforms, Future of Florida: Political Action Summit, Bob Graham Center for Public Policy at the University of Florida, Gainesville, February 22, 2015. Invited Talk, Selecting the Next American President, University of Macedonia, Greece, May 17, 2010. AWARDS AND HONORS College of Arts & Sciences Academic Excellence Grant (Spring 2018) Southern Political Science Association Artinian Travel Award (October 2017)
University of Florida Department of Political Science Travel Grant (Spring 2013; Spring 2014; Spring 2015, Summer 2016) College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Travel Grant (Summer 2015) Graduate Student Council Travel Grant (Spring 2013, Spring 2015) Bob Graham Center for Public Service, Civic Challenge Award (Summer 2013) Certificate of Outstanding Achievement, University of Florida International Center (Spring 2010) Gerontelis Foundation Graduate Fellowship (Summer 2010) RESEARCH BRIEFS AND NEWSPAPER OP-EDS Who Votes Provisionally and Why? A Look at North Carolina s 2016 General Election, MIT Election Data and Science Lab, May 2, 2018 (with Daniel A. Smith). What Provisional Ballots Tell Us about the Remaining Challenges in America s Local Voting Systems, Scholars Strategy Network Key Findings, February 2018. The big cost of using big data in elections, The Washington Post, October 18, 2015 (with Michael McDonald and Peter Licari). COURSES TAUGHT Assistant Professor, PS 4213- Campaign Politics (Fall 2018) PS 4990- Election Reform (Spring 2018) PS 4163- Chief Executive (Spring 2018) PS 4173- Legislative Process (Fall 2017, Fall 2018) PS 4223- Dynamics of American Democracy (Summer 2017) Visiting Assistant Professor, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg POS 2041- American National Government (Fall 2016, Spring 2017) POS 3713- Empirical Political Analysis (Fall 2016, Spring 2017) POS 3182/6127- Florida Politics and Government (Spring 2017) POS 4424- The American Congress (Spring 2017) POS 3453- Political Parties and Interest Groups (Fall 2016) POS 4413- The American Presidency (Fall 2016) Instructor, University of Florida PUP 3002- Current Controversies in Public Policy (Fall 2014, Spring 2016) EUS 2003- The European Experience: A Social Science Perspective (Fall 2015) POS 4931/EUS4930-Political Engagement Research (Summer A 2014) GRK 1130 - Modern Greek I (Fall 2009, Fall 2010) GRK 1131 - Modern Greek II (Spring 2010) Teaching Assistant, University of Florida
IUF 1000- What is the Good Life? (Fall 2015) POS 2112 State and Local Government (Fall 2013) POS 6747 Linear Models (Spring 2014) POS 3204 Political Behavior (Fall 2012) POS 2041 American Federal Government Online (Spring 2013, Summer B 2014, Summer A 2015, Summer B 2016) ACADEMIC SERVICE Masters Thesis Committee Member (Bryan Mathison, Mary Evelyn Goodman) PhD Dissertation Committee Member (Christine Williams) Undergraduate Student Adviser University of South Florida, St. Petersburg Citizen Scholar, Center for Civic Engagement (Fall 2016) University of Florida Co-President, Graduate Assistants United (Spring 2015- Spring 2016) International Student Chair, Graduate Assistants United (Fall 2014, Spring 2015) Secretary, Political Science Graduate Student Council (Spring 2011) Political Science Junior Fellows Program (Spring 2016) PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP American Political Science Association (APSA) Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Southern Political Science Association (SPSA) APSA State Politics and Policy section NASPAA Election Administration and Leadership Section Scholars Strategy Network (SSN)