Institute of Politics

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Youth Polling Project

In 2024, Institute of Politics students, GenForward and renowned political scientist Cathy Cohen will develop a survey to glean new insights about the issues driving young voters to the polls.

The Project

Students will work over the course of five months to develop an original survey ahead of the 2024 elections. The survey will oversample the political, economic, and social experiences of young adults, especially young adults of color, who are often overlooked in polling and survey research.

Students will be trained by the GenForward team on poll design and then develop a list of survey topics to be included on a questionnaire. The survey will be distributed and analyzed in the summer, alongside the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Join the Survey Team

We are recruiting a small cohort of students to plan, design and execute this survey. Learn more about the project by attending an info session on Wednesday, January 17 at 5:00 p.m. Apply to be part of the project by Monday, January 22.

Meet the Researchers

GenForward, a survey panel of racially and ethnically diverse young Americans age 18-30, came out of The Black Youth Project at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University Of Chicago.

Cathy J. Cohen, principal investigator and founder of GenForward, is the David and Mary Winton Green Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. She's also the author of two books, The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press) and Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press).

Kumar Ramanathan, the GenForward Postdoctoral Scholar, received his Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University in 2023. His research investigates the intersection of racial inequality, public policy, and political institutions, and has been published in Studies in American Political Development, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, and Political Research Quarterly.


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