Omar Wasow

Omar Wasow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches and conducts research at the intersection of race, protests, and political methodology. With approximately twenty years of research experience focused on civil rights protests, he has developed influential frameworks for understanding how social movements shape political discourse and outcomes.

Professor Wasow's research centers on American politics with particular expertise in social movements, racial politics, and political methodology. His work examines how protest tactics—both nonviolent and violent—influence media coverage, elite responses, public opinion, and ultimately voting behavior and policy outcomes. He is best known for developing the 'Agenda Seeding' framework, which explains how protests gradually shift political discourse over time, and his conceptualization of race as 'a bundle of sticks,' which provides a more nuanced understanding of racial categorization in political research.

His scholarship demonstrates consistent methodological innovation, combining historical analysis with sophisticated statistical techniques to address complex questions about race and protest politics. Recent publications examine plutopopulism in the Trump era, generational shifts in racial attitudes, and the comparative impact of different protest tactics on political change. His research bridges historical civil rights movements with contemporary social justice struggles, offering insights relevant to both academic and activist communities.

Professor Wasow's scholarly contributions have significantly advanced our understanding of how social movements create political change, particularly through his demonstration of the causal pathways connecting protest activity to media coverage and subsequent political outcomes. His methodological rigor and theoretical innovation have established him as a leading scholar in the study of race, protests, and American political development.