Eric Oliver
Eric Oliver Office: Pick Hall 518A Phone: 773 702 9784 Email Interests:
  • Urban politics
  • Political psychology
  • Public opinion

Eric Oliver is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His interests include contemporary American politics, suburban and racial politics, political psychology, and the politics of science. His books include Democracy in Suburbia (Princeton University Press, 2001), Fat Politics: the Real Story Behind America's Obesity Epidemic (Oxford University Press 2005), The Paradoxes of Integration: Race, Neighborhood, and Civic Life in Multi-ethnic America (University of Chicago Press, 2010), and Local Elections and the Politics of Small Scale Democracy (Princeton University Press 2012). He has also authored numerous articles in journals such as the American Political Science ReviewAmerican Journal of Political SciencePerspectives in Biology and MedicineInternational Journal of Epidemiology, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Urban Affairs Review on topics ranging from absentee voting to happiness in suburbs. He has been a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at Yale University (1999-2001), a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation (2002-2003), and winner of a Young Investigators Career Award from the National Science Foundation. Eric is currently working on papers about public support for conspiracy theories, whether liberals and conservatives name their children differently, and conducting research on the biological foundations of political cognition.

Recent Research / Recent Publications

Local Elections and the Politics of Small Scale Democracy

Local Elections and the Politics of Small Scale Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2012).

The Paradoxes of Integration: Race, Neighborhood, and Civic Life in Multi-Ethnic America

The Paradoxes of Integration: Race, Neighborhood, and Civic Life in Multi-Ethnic America (University of Chicago Press, 2010).

Fat Politics: the Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic

Fat Politics: the Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic (Oxford University Press, 2005).