Jacob Brown

Jacob Brown is an assistant professor in the department of political science at Boston University (BU). Prior to joining BU in 2023, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University. He received his PhD in government and social policy from Harvard University in 2022. His research focuses on where people live, and how where they live influences their politics. His current projects examine the causes and consequences of political segregation in the United States, the influence of where you grow up on future political behavior, and new methods for measuring political geography.

Brown’s project, “The Behavioral Consequences of Partisan Segregation,” tests whether living in politically segregated places influences voters’ partisanship and political participation and whether such geographic polarization makes voters more polarized in their political behavior and attitudes. In particular, he will evaluate new evidence on unanswered questions about geographic polarization: Does political homogeneity perpetuate itself, with voters becoming more similar politically to the people they live around? And does living in politically homogeneous communities make votes more polarized in how they view politics?