University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven has spent a large part of his career examining how we vote.
Now, a $200,000 Andrew Carnegie Corporation of New York fellowship award will help Niven dive deeper into the American polling system and how polling environments impact voters.
The 2025 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows includes Niven and 25 other recipients and represents a total of $18 million in research grants. Niven was one of over 300 nominees for this year’s class. Niven says he is the first UC faculty member to receive a Carnegie fellowship. And of the 2025 fellowship class, Niven is the only faculty member from a Big 12 institution and the only one from an Ohio university.
Niven, PhD, associate professor at the UC College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Public and International Affairs, says the fellowship will be a “culmination of everything” he has worked on during his 14 years at the university by creating practical legislative applications for in-depth polling research.
“What this grant money will help me do is answer questions that nobody’s ever been able to,” Niven said, like “How do such large variations in voter experience arise?” or “What influence do state laws, allocation of community resources and decisions from polling officials have on the process?”
His research will analyze how American citizens’ experience at the polls impacts their views on voting. Niven will use extensive survey work to systematically characterize the voting experience not only at the local and state levels, but also nationwide.
Niven hopes his study will provide insights into which variations in the voting process have the biggest impact, and who is behind the decisions that cause these variations.
Carnegie’s focus on political polarization
Under the leadership of Carnegie president Dame Louise Richardson, the 2025 class marks the second year of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program’s focus on building a body of research focused on political polarization.
“Through these fellowships Carnegie is harnessing the unrivaled brainpower of our universities to help us to understand how our society has become so polarized,” said Richardson. “Our future grantmaking will be informed by what we learn from these scholars as we seek to mitigate the pernicious effects of political polarization.”
Although researchers must apply for the fellowship, they must first be nominated by their university.
“This award is precisely the kind of thing you can do at UC that you can’t necessarily do elsewhere,” Niven said. “I certainly have a tremendous amount of gratitude to the UC Office of Research, and I appreciate President [Neville] Pinto for making this happen.”
In 2023, UC launched a presidential investment to support the university’s humanities-focused research, including political sciences. The concept, known as Society & Culture under Urban Futures, is an initiative within UC’s Next Lives Here strategic direction. The Office of Research generates data-driven insights that inform leadership strategies for various national awards and programs such as the Carnegie Fellowship.
“This award certainly illustrates Dr. Pinto’s Next Lives Here vision and demonstrates tangible impact for our faculty and campus community, but it’s the achievements of our exceptional faculty — like Dr. Niven — that should be celebrated,” adds UC Vice President for Research Patrick Limbach.
Read more about the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellows.