Natán Ezequiel Skigin

Areas of Interest: Conflict and criminal violence, political psychology and intergroup relations, causal inference

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, a Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar, and a Peace Scholar Fellow (U.S. Institute of Peace). I study contemporary threats to democracy, focusing on political psychology and behavior, violence, and migration.

My core interest centers around the political psychology of conflict and intergroup relations, particularly in Latin America. How do elites shape responses to political violence? How can grassroots organizations mobilize support for human rights in violent democracies? Which media campaigns reduce discrimination against stigmatized outgroups, including undocumented immigrants? My dissertation and related projects use field and survey experiments, interviews, and focus groups to examine how citizens interact with the political world. I have also studied the politics of dictatorships and how institutions work in democracies.

My work, published or forthcoming in Political Psychology, Research and Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly (LSQ, x2), and Party Politics, and has been externally funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Political Science Association (APSA), Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). I also received the 2023 APSA Political Psychology Distinguished Junior Scholars Award.

Prior to Notre Dame, I received an M.A. in Political Science from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and a B.A. in Political Science from Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and worked as a journalist in Argentina for five years.