Curriculum Vitae

Daniel Scates
Department of Political Science · University of California, Davis
dmscates@ucdavis.edu · dmscates.github.io

Academic position

PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of California, Davis, 2021–present
Expected completion: June 2027

Fields

Immigration Politics · Spatial Modeling · Comparative Politics · International Relations

Education

BA: International Relations, Economics, and Russian; Minor in Mathematics. University of California, Davis (2021)

Teaching

Instructor:

  • Comparative Electoral Systems (2024)

Teaching assistant:

  • Taught Discussion Sections: Introduction to International Relations, Introduction to Comparative Politics, Eastern European Politics.

  • Without Sections: German Politics, Politics of Inequality, Comparative Electoral Systems, Development Aid, International Organizations, Scientific Study of War, Local Politics, America Decides!

Awards and fellowships

  • Russell J. and Dorothy. S. Bilinski Fellowship (2026-2027)
  • GESIS Funded Research Stay (2026)
  • ISA West Emerging Scholars Forum (2024)
  • Summer Collaborative Research Grant (2023)
  • Bacon Award for Outstanding Incoming Graduate Student (2021)
  • Economics Department Citation for Outstanding Work in Economics (2021)
  • Russian Department Outstanding Student Award (2021)
  • Political Science Department Citation for Achievement in International Relations (2021)

Publications

  • Brodeur, A., Mikola, D., Cook, N., Fiala, L., Brailey, T., Briggs, R., de Gendre, A., Dupraz, Y., Gabani, J., Gauriot, R., Haddad, J., Lima, G., Ankel-Peters, J., Dreber, A., Campbell, D., Kattan, L., Fages, D. M., Mierisch, F., Sun, P., … Forshaw, R. (Accepted/In press). Computational Reproducibility and Robustness of Empirical Economics and Political Science Research. Nature.
    • Contributed with Institute for Replication Discussion Paper Series no. 36: “Flight to Safety: COVID-Induced Changes in the Intensity of Status Quo Preference and Voting Behavior: A comment on Bisbee and Honig”. Coauthored with Alice Malmburg. 2023.

Working Papers

  • “Terrorism, Trafficking, Organized Crime, and the Governance of Nontraditional Threats: Introducing the Transnational Security Cooperation Agreement Dataset (TSCAD).” With Brandon Kinne, Timea Balogh, and others. Under Review

  • “Commuting and Contact: The Spatial Effect of Ukrainian Refugees on Voting in Estonia” In preparation for submission

  • “Ukraine’s Conflict Resiliency: How Nonviolent Action Builds Informal Civil Support Networks.” With Jaime Jackson

  • “Beyond the locality: How exposure to Ukrainian refugees diffuses across space and shapes far-right support in Germany.” With Carolin Ehlers.

Presentations

  • European Political Science Society (2026)

  • Midwest Political Science Association (2024, 2025, 2026)

  • UC Davis Global Migration Center (2026)

  • International Studies Association West (2024)

Prior Employment

  • Teaching Instructor (2022-2026)

  • Graduate Research Assistant (Summer 2023)

  • Internship at Top-Down Analytics (April 2021 - Sept 2021, April 2022 - Sept 2022)

  • Undergraduate Researcher: Economics Department, UC Davis (2020-2022)

Skills

  • Languages: English, Russian (Intermediate reading, some spoken)

  • Coding/Surveys: R, Stata, LaTeX, GeoDa, Maoz Network Program, Qualtrics, Sawtooth, Excel, Powerpoint

  • Methods: Design-based causal inference, Difference-in-differences, Hierarchical models, Instrumental variable design, Spatial econometrics, Network analysis, Conjoint anaysis, Survey experiments, Game theory