Dino P. Christenson

Dino P. Christenson is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Environmental Policy Major at Washington University. He holds a PhD from Ohio State University and is affiliated with the Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis, with office located in Seigle Hall 234.

Christenson specializes in American political behavior and quantitative methodology. His research spans electoral behavior, public opinion, political psychology, political communication, interest groups, survey research design, and data science. He has developed novel approaches to measuring organized interest ideologies through amicus curiae brief analysis and created coevolving latent space network models to study partisan polarization dynamics. His methodological innovations include applications of the Frailty ERGM to address unobserved heterogeneity in network models.

Christenson's work demonstrates significant trends in increasing partisan polarization, particularly negative partisanship among Republican elites, the relationship between public opinion and presidential unilateral actions, and the evolving dynamics of interest group strategies before the Supreme Court. His research shows how presidential approval affects executive action, how misinformation correction works (or fails) across partisan lines, and how voter expectations of representation often reflect egocentric biases.

• Editors' Choice Article Award from Political Analysis
• Best Article Award by the Law & Courts Section of APSA
• Best Article Award from Political Research Quarterly

Christenson has received substantial research funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Hariri Institute, and Dirksen Congressional Center. His work advising students and directing research projects focuses on network analysis of political behavior, public opinion dynamics, and quantitative methodology development. He maintains active research labs examining amicus curiae networks, partisan polarization dynamics, and presidential communication strategies.