Doug Rice

Doug Rice is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His work focuses on judicial policymaking, particularly the role of courts in democratic systems and the implications of judicial power. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University (2013), an M.A. from the same institution (2010), and an M.A. from Villanova University (2008). His research integrates methods like text-as-data analysis to explore judicial decision-making, media coverage of legal institutions, and the intersection of law and social movements.

Rice's research interests include public law, American political behavior, and institutional governance. He examines how judicial rulings influence public policy agendas, media narratives, and societal legal consciousness, with a focus on issues like LGBTQ+ rights and racial equity. His methodological contributions include innovations in coding policy texts and analyzing legal language patterns.

His recent publications analyze judicial impact on policy salience, the evolution of legal advocacy in social movements, and gender effects in Supreme Court oral arguments. Rice advises graduate students on topics such as judicial behavior, legal text analysis, and media-politics interactions. He maintains an active research agenda exploring the intersection of law, media, and public opinion through computational and qualitative methods.