I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I study public opinion and democratic governance with a focus on managing immigration, ethnic tensions, and other demographic issues in high-income countries. I specialize in computational and experimental methods, drawing on diverse data sources from surveys to historical records. My book In Our Interest: How Democracies Can Make Immigration Popular (Columbia University Press, 2025) examines under what conditions most people would accept more open immigration policies despite their biases.

My work has been published in American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and World Politics. It has been recognized by leading grants and awards, including from the Russell Sage Foundation, American Political Science Association, and Department of Defense Army Research Office. I have also written for and been featured in popular outlets such as the New York Times, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Economist, Financial Times, and Washington Post, and think tanks such as the Bipartisan Policy Center, Center for Global Development, and Niskanen Center.

Currently, I am the author of the Popular by Design newsletter and a contributor at Good Authority. Prior to my appointment at UNC Charlotte, I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University. I received my joint Ph.D. in Politics and Social Policy from Princeton University. I can be reached at akustov [at] charlotte [dot] edu. You can find my CV here.

Select Articles

Kustov, Alexander. 2025. How to Win on Immigration: Targeted Policies That Benefit the Economy Can Counter Rising Populism. Foreign Affairs.

Kustov, Alexander and Michelangelo Landgrave. 2025. Immigration is Difficult?! Informing Voters About Immigration Policy Fosters Pro-immigration Views. Journal of Experimental Political Science.

Kustov, Alexander. 2024. Beyond Changing Minds: Raising the Issue Importance of Expanding Legal Immigration. Perspectives on Politics.

Kustov, Alexander. 2023. Do Anti-immigration Voters Care More? Documenting the Issue Importance Asymmetry of Immigration Attitudes. British Journal of Political Science. 53 (2): 796-805.

Pardelli, Giuliana and Alexander Kustov. 2022. When Coethnicity Fails. World Politics. 74 (2): 249-284.

Kustov, Alexander, Dillon Laaker, and Cassidy Reller. 2021. The Stability of Immigration Attitudes: Evidence and Implications. Journal of Politics. 83 (4): 1478-1494.