Daniel Hopkins is Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University. He is a political scientist whose research centers on American politics, with a special emphasis on racial and ethnic politics, local politics, political behavior, and research methods. Professor Hopkins is an occasional blogger at The Monkey Cage and at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.
“I was fortunate enough to be a CSAP Post-doctoral Fellow in the 2007-2008 academic year, and the experience was tremendously formative, thought-provoking, and productive—so much so that I have encouraged virtually all the Ph.D. students I’ve talked with since to strongly consider doing a post-doc. That year was everything a post-doctoral fellowship should be. It shaped my thinking, encouraging my work to focus on causal identification while emphasizing questions of theoretical and substantive importance. I saw during my time at Yale how different intellectual approaches can not only co-exist but strengthen each other through repeated interaction and interrogation. Simply put, I think my work is stronger and more credible thanks to my time at Yale. During my time at CSAP, I made intellectual connections that have lasted to the present, and I benefited immensely from getting a sense of how a leading department is run. The opportunity to focus on research at that particular stage in my career was also invaluable, as was the chance to work with and seek advice from so many members of the Yale community.”