Nathan Kalmoe Named One of Six LSU Rainmakers for Research and Creative Activity
February 11, 2021
BATON ROUGE—Nathan Kalmoe, associate professor and political communication area head at the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication, is one of six LSU faculty members named a 2020 Rainmaker for Research and Creative Activity. Rainmakers are faculty members who balance their teaching and research responsibilities while extending the impact of their work to the world beyond academia.
Kalmoe received the Rainmaker Award for Emerging Scholar in the Arts, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences category. In partnership with Campus Federal Credit Union, the LSU Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) awards six Rainmakers each year to faculty who demonstrate outstanding research, scholarship and creative activity for their respective rank and discipline. The awards recognize both sustained and continuing work, as well as the impact that work has had on faculty members, their department and their academic community.
“I think the only thing more impressive than Dr. Kalmoe’s essential research that grows more timely by the minute is his commitment to his students,” said Josh Grimm, interim dean of the LSU Manship School. “He is a dedicated teacher and scholar who embodies all the best attributes of being a professor, and I’m thrilled to have him honored as a Rainmaker.”
Kalmoe, who holds a joint appointment in the LSU Department of Political Science, studies the roots of public opinion and political action as mobilized by communication. He has published two books and 20 articles on the topic, and his work has been featured in The Washington Post, New York Times, Vox, Politico, Atlantic, The Guardian and more. His most recent book, “With Bullets and Ballots: Partisanship and Violence in the American Civil War,” was published in July 2020.
"I am humbled to receive this recognition for my public opinion and political communication research, and I am delighted to join my prestigious Manship colleagues, Jinx Broussard, Ray Pingree, Kathleen Searles and Lance Porter, who have been similarly honored in recent years,” Kalmoe said.
Kalmoe’ s current research on extreme partisan attitudes and behaviors in the public and the role of mass communication will fuel his third book, “Radical American Partisanship”—work he says is “exactly the kind of thing we saw in the January 6th Capitol insurrection.” Co-authored by Lilliana Mason, the book is expected to be released in 2022 and is based on more than a dozen public opinion surveys and experiments they’ve conducted since 2017. The Washington Post recently published Mason and Kalmoe’s short essay previewing that work.
Rainmaker criteria include but are not limited to the following: publication in a high-impact journal(s); a highly cited work; external awards; invited presentations at national and international meetings; high journal publication productivity; critically acclaimed book publication(s), performance(s), exhibit(s) or theatrical production(s); high grant productivity and for more senior candidates, outstanding citation records and high-impact invited presentations at national and international meetings.
To learn more about the 2020 Rainmakers, visit LSU ORED's faculty awards webpage. And, to read more about Kalmoe, visit his Manship School faculty webpage.
Contact acharbonnet1@lsu.edu for more information.
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LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication ranks among the strongest collegiate communication programs in the country, with its robust emphasis on media and public affairs. It offers undergraduate degrees in public relations, journalism, political communication, digital advertising and pre-law, along with four graduate degree programs: Master of Mass Communication, Ph.D. in Media and Public Affairs, Certificate of Strategic Communication and a dual MMC/Law degree. Its public relations students were recently ranked the #1 team in the nation, and its digital advertising and student media teams frequently earn national recognition.