Candidates for Office – 2024-2025

It’s time to elect the next MAPOR council members to begin roles in November 2024. We currently have two positions open for election: Vice-President/President-Elect and Associate Conference Chair. After roughly a month of open nominations, we’ve got some wonderful candidates running this year. Their bios are below.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to president@mapor.org.

Vice-President/President-Elect

Benjamin Schapiro

Benjamin Schapiro is a Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he has worked at NORC since 2014, primarily on the General Social Survey. His research focuses on long-term trends in public opinion, mode effects, and the lived experience of the survey interview. Benjamin has been involved with MAPOR since 2014 and has served on the executive committee for the past three years as a member-at-large, and then Communications Chair and the Website Chair. He has also served as the co-chair of the AAPOR Welcoming Committee.

David Sterett

David Sterrett is a Principal Research Scientist in the Public Affairs and Media Research Department at NORC at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on political attitudes, survey methodology, and the public’s news habits. Prior to joining NORC in 2014, he received his PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
David has enjoyed attending every MAPOR conference since 2010. He served as the student liaison for the MAPOR executive council when in graduate school, was the Conference Chair in 2021, and he is currently serving as a member-at-large on the executive council. David also enjoys attending AAPOR conferences and is currently serving on the AAPOR Membership and Chapter Relations Committee.

Associate Conference Chair

Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Lindsey Witt-Swanson is a Research Director in the Public Affairs and Media Research Department at NORC at the University of Chicago working with federal agencies, non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, and academics. She received her BA in Political Science at Creighton University and her MS in Survey Research and Methodology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Lindsey has served on MAPOR council since 2019 first serving as an at-large council member and currently serving as the Secretary-Treasurer since the position was vacated in April 2021. She also serves as co-treasurer for the International Field Directors and Technologies Conference (IFD&TC) and has been a member of AAPOR and MAPOR since 2011.

2023 Annual Conference

48th Annual Conference

Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!

“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion Research”

As our research landscape continues to change and evolve since the pandemic, MAPOR hopes to broaden our pursuit of collaboration in the survey and public opinion research disciplines. To continue our learning about the changing research landscape, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. Specifically, we encourage abstract submissions on topics that cut across multiple disciplines and research contexts, such as user/respondent-centered survey design, usability of web or mobile surveys, and the ethical use of public opinion and survey data.

More broadly, we welcome abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; respondent behaviors; respondent recruitment for hard-to-reach populations; nonresponse or data quality assessment; total survey error; emerging technologies or methods for data collection; use of administrative records or alternative data sources for surveys; machine learning and data science; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; cross-cultural research; and qualitative and mixed-method research techniques.

2023 Conference highlights:

Friday morning short course:
The Mother of Invention: Design of the General Social Survey from 2020-2022 and Beyond

René Bautista, NORC at the University of Chicago

Friday midday keynote address:

Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Rigor and Applied Research Goals: Reflections of a Survey Researcher in the Tech Industry

Greg Holyk, Google

Saturday morning pedagogy hour:

Broadening the Horizon: Research and Career Development Opportunities for Social and Behavioral Scientists in the Research Industries

Gina Walejko, Google

Erin Spottswood, Allstate/Portland State University

Caroline Smith, Morning Consult

Yu-Han Jao, Lundbeck

Register Here!Final conference programHotel reservation available here


MAPOR 2023 Conference Call for Participation in Industry Idea Exchange

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s

48th Annual Conference

Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!

Call for Participation: Industry Idea Exchange Session

Extended to August 18th, 2023!

As a multidisciplinary organization, MAPOR values and considers collaboration as the bedrock of our profession and research fields. Besides the innovative research trend learning opportunity from our regular thematic sessions, MAPOR is planning an Industry Idea Exchange session during the conference to enhance our pursuit of collaboration beyond survey and public opinion research communities.

The Industry Idea Exchange session seeks to provide an engaging opportunity for connecting with organizations that conduct research such as marketing, consumers or users, audience, patients, or other social, behavioral, and data sciences research in applied contexts. Topics for the Industry Idea Exchange session may include, but are not limited to, promotion of cutting-edge research toolkits, talent acquisition for research organizations, hiring trends in labor market, and organizational branding.

MAPOR welcomes and encourages researchers, hiring and research managers, career advisors and recruiters, and job seekers working in any applied research field to participate in the Industry Idea Exchange session in our 2023 annual conference for scouting talents, identifying collaboration opportunities, and expanding professional networks.

For participation inquiries, please contact the 2023 MAPOR conference chair, Y. Patrick Hsieh at: abstracts@mapor.org using the subject line “[Industry Idea Exchange Participation] by 11:59 pm CDT on Friday, August 18, 2023.” In your inquiry, please briefly describe the discussion topics you and your organization may want to discuss with other practitioners in the session. The conference committee will orient the outreach session based on the interest and focus of the participants.

MAPOR 2023 Conference Call for Abstracts

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s

48th Annual Conference

Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!

Call for Abstracts

Extended to August 18th, 2023!

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference welcomes abstract submissions on any topic related to public opinion research, communication, or survey research methodology. This year, we are accepting submissions for the following types of presentations: papers, methodological briefs, posters, and panels of papers. We are particularly interested in papers that relate to our conference theme:

“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion Research”

As our research landscape continues to change and evolve since the pandemic, MAPOR hopes to broaden our pursuit of collaboration in the survey and public opinion research disciplines. To continue our learning about the changing research landscape, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. Specifically, we encourage abstract submissions on topics that cut across multiple disciplines and research contexts, such as user/respondent-centered survey design, usability of web or mobile surveys, and the ethical use of public opinion and survey data.

More broadly, we welcome abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; respondent behaviors; respondent recruitment for hard-to-reach populations; nonresponse or data quality assessment; total survey error; emerging technologies or methods for data collection; use of administrative records or alternative data sources for surveys; machine learning and data science; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; cross-cultural research; and qualitative and mixed-method research techniques.

Submissions: Please visit the link: https://cvent.me/nwQGaq to submit your abstracts, with a limit of 300 words or fewer. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address of all authors. The same author’s name may appear as the first author on a maximum of two submissions. To allow for blind review, please remove all personally identifying information from the abstract’s text before submission.

Note to student authors: If all authors are students who will be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference, you may submit your paper to the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Please visit mapor.org for details. When submitting a student paper to the competition, the student submitter will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor. The faculty mentor will be asked to send an email of 25 words or fewer endorsing the paper when the full paper is submitted.

Panel Proposals: Panels focus on a common theme and include 4 or 5 participants. A panel proposal requires a description of 300 words or fewer discussing the issues to be addressed and their importance. Also, submissions should list the potential panelists, their institutional affiliations, email addresses, and tentative titles of presentations. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.

Submission Information: All abstracts must be posted no later than 11:59 pm CDT on Friday, August 18, 2023. Accepted papers sharing a theme will be scheduled during a paper session. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled during a poster session. MAPOR considers both types of presentation equally valuable. All submitters will be notified via e-mail by September 23 of their abstract’s acceptance status. For questions or problems with the submission process, please contact the 2022 MAPOR conference chair, Y. Patrick Hsieh at: abstracts@mapor.org.

Travel Grants: The MAPOR Council will be offering two types of support grants for the 2023 Annual Conference: the MAPOR Student Support Grant and the MAPOR Colleague Grant. More details on these awards can be found on mapor.org.

2022 Student Fellowship Program

Deadline extended!!

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research is excited to announce its open call for proposals for the 2022 Student Fellowship Program. This is a unique opportunity for students to work with a MAPOR fellow and receive guidance on the development of an original research project. Students selected to take part in the program will be matched with a MAPOR fellow based on the topic of their abstract. The MAPOR Executive Council will choose up to 4 proposals for participation in the program and the selected proposals will be accepted for presentation during the 2022 MAPOR Conference. Each selected student will be awarded $250 and the conference registration will be waived for the authors of the selected proposals. 

Eligibility

All students enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program on April 17th, 2022 are eligible to participate in the program. If more than one author plans to collaborate, please make sure that all authors are students. The topic of the proposed papers should be related either to public opinion or survey methodology. If the students propose a quantitative study, please, make sure you have access to the data before you submit a proposal. Membership in MAPOR is not required to participate, but students are expected to be MAPOR members at the time of the conference. Preferably, students can submit one proposal as the primary author. Preferably, the participants will attend the conference in person. Students who will be selected for the Student Fellowship Program will not be eligible for the student paper award during this year, but they will be eligible for travel awards.

Procedure

To be considered please submit a proposal to the MAPOR Executive Council for the Student Fellowship Program. The proposal should be between 500 and 1000 words. It should include a very brief literature review and an importance statement. If the proposal is quantitative, please make sure you identify and describe the dataset. Send the proposal by 11:59 CDT, Sunday, April 17th, 2022. In the email include a subject line that says “MAPOR Student Fellowship Program”. In addition, the student should identify a faculty mentor and ask them to write a letter of recommendation. Both the student proposal and the letter of recommendation should be sent to Kevin Ulrich, ulrichkv@uchicago.edu. The selected students for the Fellowship Program will be announced by May 1st.

Students’ responsibilities

The selected students will be responsible for their communication with their mentor. MAPOR Executive Council will suggest a communication plan. However, the students that will be selected for the Student Fellowship Program can suggest a different communication plan if they wish. Both the student and the mentor should agree upon the communication plan in writing and the communication plan should also be emailed to Kevin Ulrich. The students are expected to work on the paper with the guidance of the mentor. In addition, the students who will be selected will be required to present their paper in MAPOR 2022.

If you have any questions, please email us at ekapou2@uic.edu.