Assistant Professor of Political Science

Danny Choi is a political scientist who joined Brown in 2022 and the PSTC in 2023. His research focuses on two broad themes: 1) migration and identity politics; and 2) political parties and elections. His first (co-authored) book, Native Bias: Overcoming Discrimination Against Immigrants (Princeton University Press), examines the extent to which common norms, identities, and ideas can reduce prejudice and discrimination against immigrants and facilitate their inclusion in democratic societies. It received the Best Book Award from the Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association in 2023. He is completing his second book project, which investigates how political parties and the nature of candidate selection institutions influence the relationship between elected representatives and their constituents in new democracies. His work on these two themes has also been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis, among others. He is also currently working on a number of projects on topics such as immigration and minority exclusion in Europe, the politics of sexual and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, and the sociopolitical consequences of Asian minority exclusion in the United States. 

Prior to Brown, Danny was an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Identity and Conflict Lab. He received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Selected Publications:

Choi, D.D., Poertner, M. and Sambanis, N. (2023), The Hijab Penalty: Feminist Backlash to Muslim Immigrants. American Journal of Political Science, 67: 291-306. 

Choi, D., Harris, J., & Shen-Bayh, F. (2022). Ethnic Bias in Judicial Decision Making: Evidence from Criminal Appeals in Kenya. American Political Science Review, 116(3), 1067-1080.

Arriola, L. Choi, D., & Gichohi, M.K. (2022). Increasing Intergroup Trust: Endorsements and Voting in Divided Societies. The Journal of Politics, 84:4, 2107-2122.

Choi, D.D., Poertner M., & Sambanis N. (2019). Parochialism, social norms, and discrimination against immigrants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(33), 16274-16279.

Scholarly Interests

Intergroup Relations, Immigration, Identity Politics, Political Parties, Elections, Africa

Affiliated Departments

Department of Political Science