Alexander Agadjanian

Welcome! I'm a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in the Vanderbilt Political Science Department. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley in 2026. 

My research interests center on race and political behavior, largely in American politics. A core focus of my research is the intersection of politics and racial fluidity. Specifically, in studying rapidly growing groups with ambiguous positions in the racial hierarchy such as Hispanic and multiracial Americans, I explore changes in racial self-identification, how sociopolitical factors can shape this identity change, and the consequences of this phenomenon for group politics and American democracy.

My research also examines elite rhetoric, racial attitudes, and other areas in public opinion. I study all of these topics using survey experiments, public surveys, election returns, textual data, cast vote records, voter files, Census microdata, and more.