Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts

Sona N. Golder

Sona N. Golder

Sona N. Golder

Professor of Political Science
320 Pond Lab University Park, PA 16802
(814) 867-4322
On Sabbatical 2023-24
Golder_Sona

Professional Bio

Professor Golder received her PhD from New York University; she also studied at Sciences Po (l’Institut d’études politiques de Paris) and the University of Chicago. She studies political institutions, with a particular interest in coalition formation. Her early research and first book, The Logic of Pre-Electoral Coalition Formation, examines the determinants and consequences of electoral alliances in parliamentary democracies. Her most recent book is about Multi-level Electoral Politics, and she is currently working on a book project on interaction approaches to intersectionality theory. Her research has been published in many of the discipline’s leading journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics. In addition to having served as a co-editor for the British Journal of Political Science, she is currently serving as an associate editor for Research & Politics and on the editorial boards for the American Journal of Political Science and Political Science Research and Methods. Her research has been funded by Canada's Social Sciences and Research Council through the Making Electoral Democracy Work project. Currently she is working on a project on Party Instability in Parliaments, or INSTAPARTY that is funded by the Norwegian Research Council. More information can be found at her website and on her Google scholar profile.

Areas of Interest

  • Comparative Politics
  • Methodology

Publications

“Electoral Coalition Signals and Voter Perceptions.”

“Electoral Coalition Signals and Voter Perceptions.” 2022. Jinhyuk Jang*, Charles Crabtree and Sona N. Golder. Japanese Journal of Political Science 23(2): 167-81.

“Permissive Electoral Systems and Descriptive Representation.”

“Permissive Electoral Systems and Descriptive Representation.” 2021. Kostanca Dhima*, Sona N. Golder, Laura B. Stephenson, and Karine Van der Straeten. Electoral Studies. 73.

“Partisan Portfolio Allocation in African Democracies.”

“Partisan Portfolio Allocation in African Democracies.” 2018. Margaret H. Ariotti* and Sona N. Golder. Comparative Political Studies. 51(3): 341-79.

*PSU PhD student co-author.