2024 presidential race: IU experts available to comment

Emily Alford is head of Government Information, Maps and Microform Services at the IU Libraries. She is the Federal Depository Library Program coordinator, a School of Public Health liaison librarian and a faculty affiliate with the IU Center for Rural Engagement. Across these roles, she shares her expertise as a government information and data specialist regarding local, state, federal and international governmental organizations. Alford has particular interest in providing research assistance on voting, elections and other areas of civic engagement.

Elizabeth Bennion is Chancellor’s Professor of political science at IU South Bend. She is the founding director of IU South Bend’s American Democracy Project, president of the Indiana Debate Commission, and host of “Politically Speaking,” a weekly TV program on WNIT Public Television. 

Nicholas “Nico” Casas is assistant librarian for teaching and learning at IU Northwest, where he works with a team of other librarians to deliver instruction sessions for classes throughout campus with an emphasis on information literacy. His research interests include fake news and misinformation.

Vanessa Cruz Nichols is an assistant professor in the department of political science in The College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington. She can comment on American politics, elections and campaigns, Latino politics, as well as civic engagement and political behavior of immigrants and communities of color.

Aaron Dusso is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science in the School of Liberal Arts at IU Indianapolis. He can discuss U.S. elections, voting and political psychology of electoral behavior.

Mark Fraley is the associate director of PACE, the Political and Civic Engagement program in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. He has extensive experience in community organizing, political campaigning, legislative relations, strategic communications and nonprofit management. Most recently, he worked as the assistant director for the Liberal Arts and Management Program, while teaching courses on lobbying and public advocacy for the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Raymond Haberski Jr. is a professor of history and director of American studies at IU Indianapolis. He also directs the Institute for American Thought and is part of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He can speak to: US foreign policy and American elections, religion and politics, history of fascism in America, hope and disillusion in American politics.

Marjorie Hershey has written extensively on political parties and campaigns. Her most recent work is on party activists and also on media coverage of the Trump campaign and presidency.

KT Lowe, assistant librarian for instruction at IU East, developed the Fake News LibGuide, likely the first library guide dedicated to the topic, with over 105,000 views worldwide. 

Asaf Lubin is an associate professor of law in the Maurer School of Law at IU Bloomington and a fellow at IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. Dr. Lubin’s research centers on the intersection of law, technology, and international security. He can comment on foreign election interference and election certification, misinformation and disinformation campaigns, foreign intelligence and cyber espionage, policy priorities in tech governance within the first 100 days, policy priorities in international law and institutions within the first 100 days.

Filippo Menczer is a Luddy Distinguished Professor of Informatics and Computer Science in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington. He directs the Observatory on Social Media and serves on the senior leadership team of the IU Network Science Institute.

Elaine Monaghan has worked for two decades in international journalism. She is professor of practice at Indiana University’s Media School, where she teaches reporting, writing and media ethics. She can speak to the ethics of political reporting and how journalism operates in a current landscape of misinformation.

Lisa-Marie Napoli is director and senior lecturer in the Political and Civic Engagement program in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. She founded Voices for Democracy and Civility and is chair of the Big Ten Voting Challenge, both campus and community-wide initiatives to enhance a positive political climate.

Professor Scott J. Shackelford serves on the faculty of Indiana University, where he is Cybersecurity Program chair, director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, and associate professor of business law and ethics at the IU Kelley School of Business. He is a senior fellow at IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, academic director of the IU Cybersecurity Clinic and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kristina Horn Sheeler is a professor of communication studies and IU Indianapolis Honors College dean. Her research is in the area of gender and political communication, studying the ways that political candidate identity is contested and constructed in popular media, political discourse, journalism and punditry.

Steven Webster, an associate professor of political science at IU Bloomington, focuses his research on the role of anger in American politics. 

Joe Wert is a professor of political science at IU Southeast, where he has taught since 1999. His areas of research include public opinion and the presidency, as well as the American populist movement. His teaching interests include American political institutions (especially the presidency), public administration and constitutional law.

Andrew Whitehead is a professor of sociology and executive director of the Association of Religion Data Archives at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. Whitehead is one of the foremost scholars of Christian nationalism in the United States. He is the author of “American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church,” which was awarded the 2024 Gold Medal Book Award for Religion from Foreword Reviews and the 2024 Midwest Book Award winner for Religion & Philosophy.