Department/College/UnitSocial Sciences Division

TitleAssociate Professor

AffiliationFaculty

Other UCSC Campus AffiliationLegal Studies

Web SiteCV

Primary Office LocationMerrill College Academic Building
Office 113

Office HoursSpring 2025: Tuesdays 11:45am-12:45pm (in person, my office – 113 Merrill) and Wednesdays 9am-10am drop-in on Zoom (link for current students on course Canvas website, email me for link if not a current student)

Mail StopMerrill/Crown Faculty Services

Biography, Education and Training

Melanie Jean Springer received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2006. She began her academic career in the Political Science department at Washington University in Saint Louis. In the Fall of 2013, she joined the Politics faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She specializes in American Politics. Her research and teaching interests include American political development, political history, voting and elections, state politics and policymaking, sovereignty, Native American political rights, political parties, partisanship, and political institutions. Her book How the States Shaped the Nation: American Electoral Institutions and Voter Turnout, 1920-2000 was published in 2014 with the University of Chicago Press (Chicago Studies in American Politics). This work examines the effects of numerous state-level electoral institutions on 20th century voter turnout rates in the American states. Her research has also been published by Brookings Institution Press, and in Political Research Quarterly, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Research, the Journal of Policy History, and the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship.

Research Interests

American Political Development, Political History, Voting and Elections, State Politics and Policymaking, Sovereignty, American Indian Political Rights, Political Parties, Partisanship, and Political Institutions.