Barbara A Trish

Professor of Political Science, with a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, Ms. Trish is a generalist in U.S. politics, with political parties, electoral politics and technology frequently at the intersection of her teaching and scholarship. Her book Inside the Bubble (with Bill Menner, Routledge) explores presidential nomination politics through the eyes of campaign staff; it was released in fall ’21.

Big Data under Obama and Trump, published in Politics and Governance, explores the data fueled U.S. presidency.  As a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID), she contributed to the series Voting and Equity in the United States. Additionally, her comments and analyses of contemporary politics (examples below) have been published in a variety of media outlets.

Trump's Iowa political organizing this year is nothing like his scattershot 2016 campaign in the Conversation, January 5, 2024

DeSantis-linked super PAC broke new ground in pushing campaign finance rules in Iowa in support of a 2nd-place finish in The Conversation, January 16, 2024

From recording videos in a closet to Zoom meditating, 2020’s political campaigns adjust to the pandemic in The Conversation, October, 2020

Congress isn't paying its interns enough in The Washington Post, September 2, 2018

(with George Barlow) How Athletes are Changing the Conversation about Racism in The Washington Post (Made by History), October 16, 2018.

Ms. Trish’s courses, in one way or another, expose students to the methods of empirical and quantitative political science. She liked data before it became fashionable! Most of her courses involve a research project in which students collect and analyze data, and students also experiment with different writing formats.

While at Grinnell, Ms. Trish has had a variety of involvements outside her department, including serving as the Director of the Rosenfield Program from 2017 to 2024. She has also directed the college's Program in Practical Political Education (PPPE) and has been active in efforts to enhance quantitative literacy. Grinnell's long-standing relationship with Nanjing University is one of her special interests.