Sebastián Vallejo Vera

Join us on Thursday, November 20th at 12:30pm as we welcome Prof. Adam Ali to our Research Seminar Series. "We will make refugees proud around the world, and we will make them smile': Necropolitics, post-colonialism, and the rise of the Olympic Refugee Team" All are welcome!

Dreamy Empire @PotatoParallax Every Latin America election be like : Fernando Indiano leader of a coalition of trade unions indigenous groups and a coalition of progressive parties 50,1% Felipe Heinrich Mengele III Nazi drug lord 49,9% 15:44 23jun 22

Watching Chilean election results come in and once again thinking about this tweet

📢 Apply now! @westernu.ca Political Science offering MA & PhD Fellowship w/ Drs. Alcantara & Stephenson’s @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca project on “The Determinants of Public Support for Indigenous Reconciliation Policies”🪶 Deadline: Feb 1, 2026
#WesternU #Reconciliation #Research #ldnont #Grads #Indigenous

Young Canadians are politically engaged — just not where you expect. Read the full story at news.westernu.ca #WesternU #WesternResearch TikTok video by Western University

👀 Think young Canadians aren’t political? Think again. From social movements to digital activism & community impact, research shows they’re leading change in unexpected ways ⬇️Watch now or ➡️ read more: news.westernu.ca
#WesternU #WesternResearch #YouthPolitics #CanadianActivism #tiktokdebut #polisci

🏅We are proud to announce that William Poirier has been awarded the Dr. Harold D. Clarke Graduate Quantitative Research Methodology Fellowship for his demonstrated ability & interest in Quantitative Research Methodology. Congratulations on a well-deserved award!
#westernu #quant #research #methods

Worried about getting into or out of the US for APSA 2026? Or about what kind of paper you can present? Today is the deadline for Canadian PSA proposals for June 2-4 at U of Ottawa. Propose a paper or a whole panel. But do it today!

Photo: L to R (Back) – Grad Students Ryan Philips, Alvaro Pereira Filho, Katie McCoy, Noah Vanderhoeven, Colton Stevenson, Professor Mathieu Turgeon, (Front) Inaara Savani, Jamie Chow

Members from the @westernu.ca Political Science department attended the 11th Annual Toronto Political Behaviour Workshop (Nov. 7-8) at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy (UofT). #cdnpoli #politicalbehaviour #workshop #grads #uoft #politicaleconomy #tpbw #western
📸credit: Inaara Savani

I'm thrilled that my book, Unity through Particularism: How Electoral Reforms Influence Parties and Legislative Behavior, is now available for pre-order through CUP and Amazon!

Let me know if you'd like an electronic copy for your class, and I'll send it to you!

www.cambridge.org/us/universit...

lol

job
TENURE-TRACK ASSISTANT PROFESSOR POSITION IN HEALTH AND THE LIFE COURSE OR WORK AND THE ECONOMY

Department of Sociology, Western University

Review of applications will commence on November 6th, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled.

csn-rec.ca/job-postings...

Nerds: it's time for our Calgary municipal election forecasting contest! The winner gets a free copy of my forthcoming co-edited book, City Politics in Canada. Please share widely! #yyccc

survey.ucalgary.ca/jfe/form/SV_...

The CPSA accepts proposals for full panels. Why not choose Ottawa in June instead of Boston, USA in September?

In 2024, we surveyed US scholars about how, when, why they do (or don’t!) personally participate. We find a few patterns, some differences by subfield and variation in our attitudes toward the place of personal politics in our work, especially the impacts on our credibility with the public.

LLMs as annotators: the effect of party cues on labelling decisions by large language models Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - LLMs as annotators: the effect of party cues on labelling decisions by large language models

Just *published* our paper with @westernupolisci.bsky.social PhD student, Hunter Driggers, on LLM bias from party cues in annotation tasks. We extend a previous study showing annotation bias from human coders in the presence of party cues… LLM show similar bias 🧵:

rdcu.be/eIKCj

This is not entirely surprising: you train a model with huge amounts of human-created biased data, it will probably replicate this behaviour. The main takeaway here is that LLMs are biased in a very LLM way. They cling to these cues and do not self-correct (like human coders).

So we find the same direction of the effect, but greater magnitude. In any case, keep this in mind when using LLM as annotators, and check the paper for some additional ‘best practices’ when using LLM. Topes!

This is not entirely surprising: you train a model with huge amounts of human-created biased data, it will probably replicate this behaviour. The main takeaway here is that LLMs are biased in a very LLM way. They cling to these cues and do not self-correct (like human coders).

We tested how LLM annotate text on immigration by only changing the party names on the text. LLM were more likely to label statements as negative when applying a right-leaning party cues, and positive when applying a left -leaning party cues.

LLMs as annotators: the effect of party cues on labelling decisions by large language models Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - LLMs as annotators: the effect of party cues on labelling decisions by large language models

Just *published* our paper with @westernupolisci.bsky.social PhD student, Hunter Driggers, on LLM bias from party cues in annotation tasks. We extend a previous study showing annotation bias from human coders in the presence of party cues… LLM show similar bias 🧵:

rdcu.be/eIKCj

If we set aside ad-hoc explanations, two forces stand out in shaping global development: colonial institutions and war—even if the former fails to explain Europe itself. Latin America has long tilted the debate away from the latter, but what if the real driver was war here as well?👇

Labels can impact politics. My paper @apsrjournal.bsky.social "What Happens When You Can't Check the Box?" shows when Middle Eastern & North African (MENA) Americans are excluded from identity categories, they assert MENA identity when answering relevant political questions.
doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Leaders of Canada and Mexico Talk Trade and Security Without U.S.

The New York Times
What to know about the North American summit taking place without the U.S.
As leaders of Canada and Mexico met this week to discuss trade, Professor @svallejovera.bsky.social Vallejo Vera explains what the meeting aims to accomplish.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/w...

🎉Now online (open access): "Hidden Majoritarianism and Women’s Career Progression in Proportional Representation Systems" at @apsrjournal.bsky.social. @alicirone.bsky.social, @teele.bsky.social, Gary Cox, @fiva.no. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🚨New Publication🚨

Using the entire #Canadian Election Study (1965–2021), I examine voter turnout by class, education, & income over time & test whether the offerings of political parties impact these relationships.

Available #OpenAccess in @cjps-rcsp.bsky.social
#polisky

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Assistant Professor of Political Science (Comparative Politics of Asia/China), Fall 2026 - Knoxville, Tennessee, United States job with University of Tennessee, Knoxville | 37867857 Description The Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville invites applications for a tenure track...

Comparative Politics Folks, we have a position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. If y'all have any questions, send word. Great collegial department in an affordable urban location, plus there's the Smokies and outdoors.

jobs.chronicle.com/job/37867857...

Stony Brook is hiring in political psychology (assistant professor). Please Share! Feel free to reach out if you have question. For more information: apply.interfolio.com/170193

Excited to cap off the summer with a new publication coauthored with @leahellmueller.bsky.social!
We debunk the myth about the universal demand for #horserace news, offering evidence on fascinating cultural nuances on social news sharing #NewsEngagement #ElectionCoverage
ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

News Current news and announcements from the Department of Political Science at Western University.

We are very excited to have the brilliant @blairwelsh.bsky.social joining the Dept of Political Science @westernu.ca! Look for big things and important work in empirical IR; great for us and great for Canada!

politicalscience.uwo.ca/about_us/new...

Come work with me/us!!! Happy to answer questions about our dept, Western, and Canadian academia. I absolutely love it here and highly recommend. Several of us will be at APSA and happy to meet. 🇨🇦