Cameron Wimpy

Cameron Wimpy

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Arkansas State University

About

I am a political scientist at Arkansas State University with interests in political economy, political methodology, and political violence. I formerly served as the Research Director in the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, where I managed applied research on the scientific study of elections. I was also previously an affiliate faculty member with the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science. I grew up on Crowley’s Ridge in the Arkansas Delta.

Interests

  • Data Science
  • Political Economy
  • Political Methodology
  • Political Violence
  • Public Policy
  • Spatial Econometrics

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2014

    Texas A&M University

  • MA in Political Science, 2009

    Arkansas State University

  • BA in Political Science, 2007

    Arkansas State University

Recent Posts

Doing an independent study with Dr. Wimpy

So you need an independent study? I am often approached by students who want to complete an independent study with me. In most cases, they “want” to do this because they “need” a certain amount of credit for a given sub-field to graduate.
Last updated on Aug 20, 2020 7 min read teaching

Best practices for virtual meetings

Introduction This post provides best practices for virtual meetings and seminars in the event that they are necessary. We often need to employ video conferencing for our seminars, one-on-one and group meetings, or for other unforeseen circumstances.
Last updated on May 15, 2020 11 min read teaching

New publication on the interpretation of spatial models

Along with Guy D. Whitten and Laron K. Williams, I have a recently published article in Political Science Research and Methods. Check it out here.
Last updated on Jun 19, 2019 1 min read research

GGPLOT2 Tutorial

I am in the process of creating a ggplot2 tutorial for my students. It will continue to grow as I get time. Feel free to check it here out and use any part of it as you wish.
Last updated on Apr 17, 2020 1 min read data science

Teaching

Courses & Workshops

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All Courses Workshops Short Courses

African Political Systems

The government and politics of primarily sub-Saharan Africa, involves study of the people as well as their political institutions

Foreign Policy Analysis

Theory, practice, and analysis of foreign policy, with a focus on the United States and an emphasis on contemporary issues and basic ideas governing American foreign policy

Introduction to International Politics

Various approaches to the study of international politics

Introduction to LaTeX

Learn how to typset beautiful scientific documents

Introduction to Model United Nations

Preparation for and participation in model United Nations

Introduction to Political Analysis

Introduction to the discipline of political science, its subfields, and to the use of the social scientific method and logical inquiry

Introduction to U.S. Government

The constitution, government, and politics of the United States

Middle Eastern Political Systems

Major Middle Eastern political systems, with concentration on their common characteristics and major differences

Seminar in Political Economy

This course is designed to provide an overview of the literature on Comparative & International Political Economy

Spatial Econometrics

An introduction to spatial econometrics including topics such as contagion, clustering, interdependence, and spatial networks; various modeling strategies and software applications are covered

Recent Publications

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X Marks the Spot: Discovering the Treasure of Spatial-X Models

We contend that spatial-X (SLX) models are a better reflection of typical theories about spatial processes.
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Abstention, Protest, and Residual Votes in the 2016 Election

We analyze the significant increase in the residual vote rate in the 2016 presidential election.
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Bureaucracy and the Failure of Politics: Challenges to Democratic Governance

In this article, we argue that the major governance failures are political, not bureaucratic, and the first step to better governance is to recognize the underlying political causes.
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Interpretation: The Final Spatial Frontier

Building on the example of the diffusion of democracy, we elucidate how our approach to interpretation can be applied to modern political science problems.
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Administrative Capacity and Health Care in Africa: Path Dependence as a Contextual Variable

We examine the role of administrative capacity on health outcomes in 36 African nations using the path dependence of being a British colony as the contextual variable.
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See all publications

Popular Topics

Africa Courses Economic Voting Elections Fieldwork ggplot2 Middle East policies Politcal Science Political Methodology Political Science professionalism Public Health Public Policy Residual Vote Short spatial Spatial Econometrics Stata Tobacco

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