I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I study democratic governance and public opinion with a focus on managing immigration and ethnic tensions in high-income countries. I specialize in survey, computational, and experimental methods informed by a range of data sources from original polls and economic games to political texts and historical records. My book project In Our Interest: How to Make Immigration Popular examines under what conditions most people would accept more open immigration policies.

My work has been published in, among many others, American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of 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 Washington Post, Financial Times, and Economist. 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 Publications

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.

Kustov, Alexander. 2021. Borders of Compassion: Immigration Preferences and Parochial Altruism. Comparative Political Studies. 54 (3-4): 445–481.

Kustov, Alexander, and Giuliana Pardelli. 2018. Ethnoracial Homogeneity and Public Outcomes: The (Non)effects of Diversity. American Political Science Review. 112 (4): 1096-1103.