Research with Students

One of the best parts about being a faculty member is getting to work with students on a daily basis on research projects.  Here are some of the current and former students (undergraduates and graduate students) that I have had the pleasure of working with, along with a description of our research project and any publications that have resulted from our efforts.  

Katelynn Parton

Katelynn and I worked on a  project about the ways that candidates running for U.S. Congress tweeted in 2022 during both their primary and general elections.  We suspected that we would see many differences between those two stages of the campaign, and we were correct.  Candidates were less likely to tweet unflattering things about their opponents during the primary, and were less likely to discuss issues.  We also investigated the impact of incumbency, partisanship, and gender. 

Our work was just accepted for publication and will be out soon! 

Publications

Evans, Heather K. and Katelynn Parton. 2023. "A Tale of Two Elections: Changes in Candidate Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections in Virginia." Journal of Political Marketing.

Rian Moore

Rian Moore and I were very interested in the ways that candidates for the House and Senate discussed important policy issues in the 2020 election (specifically the economy, COVID-19, and the Black Lives Matter movement).  Rian (one of our UVA Wise Summer Scholars) presented our work at the 2022 Midwest Political Science Association meeting, and our research is currently under review for publication.  We also had some of our research featured in a national report the week after the 2020 election.  

Publications

Evans, Heather K. and Rian F. Moore. (2020) "Did the Economy, COVID-19, or Black Lives Matter to the Senate Candidates in 2020?" US Election Analysis 2020 available here: https://www.electionanalysis.ws/us/president2020/section-5-social-media/did-the-economy-covid-19-or-black-lives-matter-to-the-senate-candidates-in-2020/

Miranda Estrada

Miranda was in the McNair Program at SHSU and worked with me on a project involving the way that female candidates communicate on Twitter in the 2016 election.  We attended the Southern Political Science Association conference and the Midwest Political Science Association conference in 2019.  She became a co-author on a project with Mikki Woodard and Jackson Jannell on the way candidates tweeted about Trump across three elections.  Our work was recently published in The Internet and 2020 Campaign edited by Terri Towner and Jody Baumgartner. 

Publications

Heather K. Evans, Michaela Woodard, Miranda Estrada, and Jackson Jannell. (2022) “All Aboard the #TrumpTrain: How House Candidates Discussed Trump on Twitter in 2016, 2018, and 2020” in The Internet and 2020 Campaign edited by Terri Towner and Jody Baumgartner, Lexington Books.

Mikki Woodard

Sean, Kayla, Alexis and I worked on a project involving negativity in elections on Twitter.  We attended the Midwest Political Science Association conference in 2016.  Our research was published in 2017. We also received a EURECA grant from SHSU.

Publications

Evans, Heather K., Sean Smith, Alexis Gonzales, and Kayla Strouse (2017) "Mudslinging on Twitter during the 2014 Election." Social Media + Society April-June: 1-9.

Stephen Green and Joycelyn Ovalle

Stephen, Joycelyn and I worked on a project involving female candidates and the ways that they use Twitter both during and after elections are over.  We attended the 2014 Southern Political Science Association conference, and ended up publishing our results.

Publications

Evans, Heather K., Stephen Green, and Joycelyn Ovalle. (2016) “Rockin’ Robins: Do Congresswomen Rule the Roost of the Twittersphere.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 67(2):268-275.

Savannah Sipole and Victoria Cordova

My research with Savannah and Victoria really started my entire line of Twitter research.  Back in the fall of 2012, we began collecting Twitter data on the people running for the U.S. House races.  Our work was featured on the Monkey Cage and was published in PS: Political Science and Politics.  We presented our research findings at the 2013 Southwestern Political Science Association conference and we won the Pi Sigma Alpha Research Award.

Since that time, I've also published a book chapter with Savannah about Twitter, and a second article with Victoria about videos in online classes.  All of our research is featured below.  

Publications and other media outreach

Evans, Heather K. and Savannah Sipole. (2017) “From Home-Style to Twitter-Style: How Personal, District, and Campaign Characteristics affect House Candidates’ Twitter-Style.” in Social Media and Politics: A New Way to Participate in the Political Process, edited by Glenn W. Richardson, Jr. Praeger.

Evans, Heather K. and Victoria Cordova (2015) “Lecture Videos in Online Courses: A Follow-Up” Journal of Political Science Education 11(4): 472-482.

Evans, Heather K., Victoria Cordova, and Savannah Sipole. (2014) “Twitter-Style: An Analysis of How House Candidates Used Twitter in their 2012 Campaigns” PS: Political Science and Politics 47(2): 454-462.

Invited piece, “What Do Members of Congress Tweet About?” Monkey Cage, March 20, 2013 http://themonkeycage.org/2013/03/what-do-members-of-congress-tweet-about/

Ashley Moulder

Ashley and I worked on research project involving the representation of women in our discipline appearing in the leading journals in the field.  We presented our research at the 2011 Western Political Science Association conference, and our work resulted in a publication.

Publications

Evans, Heather K. and Ashley Moulder. (2011) “Reflecting on a Decade of Women’s Publications in Four Top Political Science Journals.” PS: Political Science and Politics 44(4):793-798.