Peter R. Licari

I’m a researcher and PhD candidate in American Politics and Political Methodology. In my work, I try to understand American political behavior through a mix of quantitative and qualitative research. My dissertation leverages statistical and analytical tools common in data science and computational social science– as well as qualitative case studies, physical and digital archives, and content analysis– to investigate how video games can influence political attitudes and increase political participation. I am also a member of UF’s Election Sciences Team, where I work on constructing datasets that link electoral and administrative data to aid in election modeling, visualization, and redistricting efforts.

Broadly, my work looks at the socially relevant stuff going on between people’s ears (attitudes, biases, cognitions, etc.), how they’re conditioned by social, media, and political forces, and how this all influences people’s identities, the ways the act, and the things they believe. This has led me to the aforementioned video game research, but also to look at the formation of voting as a habit, how country of origin and education influence immigrant voter participation, the effects of certain media outlets on levels of political knowledge, the ways voting systems and conversation groups interact in vote choices in new versus established democracies, and Latino turnout in the 2016 election in Florida, to name a few. In my research, I have designed and administered surveys, designed experiments, conducted case studies, and studied archival material, analyzing the resulting data through a combination of advanced statistical and qualitative inference. My passion is in solving puzzles in social behavior in ways that garner new insights and, hopefully, adds some good to the world.

I believe that one does not truly know something until they grapple with it, play with it, then try to teach it. I have been fortunate enough to teach/lead class sections during my time at UF. The things I always prioritize in my teaching are subject knowledge, enthusiasm, care for my students, and facilitation of learning. My passion for teaching extends to the digital realm as well. I’m also the creator of the Professor Politics YouTube channel, where I make short, biweekly videos about society and the social sciences. The channel has amassed roughly 100 videos and 8,500 subscribers since I started it. I’ve got no plans to slow down anytime soon.

When I’m not working, I can usually be found training for my next road race, reading, relaxing with my wife, playing with my dog, Dude, and having oddly-productive one-sided conversations with my cat, Asia. I’m also on Twitter, Medium, and I blog at A Wild Political Nerd Appears.

Areas of Interest/Research

Political Psychology, Political Behavior, Public Opinion, Opinion Formation, Formation and Expression of Political Identity, Digital Media, Research Methodology, Data Science, Computational Social Science, Survey Research, Large-N Research, and Experimental Research.

Contact Information

Email:plicari13@ufl.edu
Office Hours: By appointment.

Department of Political Science
University of Florida
P.O. Box 117325
Gainesville, FL 32611