Welcome to my site!

I am a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, studying comparative politics, political behavior, and political communication. My current research agenda focuses on the personalization of politics in a comparative perspective, especially in Latin America. I am interested in understanding why candidates personalize their election campaigns, why people look at candidates’ characteristics when making vote decisions, and how election campaigns shape political attitudes and behaviors. My work has been published or is forthcoming in Social Media + Society, Journal of Youth Studies, Política y Gobierno, Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, and Polis.

Email: sebastian.rivera [at] uci [dot] edu.