About

THE JACK CITRIN CENTER FOR PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH

4 panel image of people voting, people holding yes, no, don't know signs, cartoon about polling trust, map of usa with colored precincts

CREATION AND MISSION OF THE JACK CITRIN CENTER FOR PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH

The Jack Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research was created in May 2017 through donations from friends, family, colleagues and former students. It is housed administratively in the Department of Political Science within the Division of Social Sciences of the College of Letters & Science. The Citrin Center conducts original polling, engages in other cutting-edge research on public opinion, organizes conferences and lectures to bring together top scholars, supports research conducted by affiliated faculty members and graduate students, and engages in other activities connected to public opinion research. The Center publicizes its research findings to create a broader awareness of the study of public opinion — defined broadly to refer to political culture and political identity as studied through multiple methods, as determined by the political science chair. Spending in support of the Center’s activities is at the discretion of the chair of Political Science and his/her delegates who are experts in public opinion research.

Background

This fund will honor and extend the legacy of Professor Jack Citrin, a Berkeley faculty member for fifty years and a leading scholar and teacher of public opinion. Professor Citrin’s area of expertise is in the field of political behavior and his research interests include political trust, the foundations of policy preferences, direct democracy, national identity, and ethnic politics, including immigration and language politics. His work primarily concerns American politics but also Western Europe and Canada. Professor Citrin was born in China to refugee parents and was interned in a camp for three years by the Japanese occupiers of Shanghai. His elementary and high school education was in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He received his B.A. and M.A. from McGill University and his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1970. He has taught here since 1969. Among his books and edited volumes are America. Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism (2014), Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy (2009), Tax Revolt, Something for Nothing in. California (1982, 1985), After the Tax Revolt: Proposition 13 Turns 30 (2009), and Nominating the President: Evolution and Revolution in 2008 and Beyond (2009). He is the author of numerous articles in leading journals as well as many book chapters, with some recent examples listed below. This is a link to his current c.v.

Portrait of Jack Citrin

Professor Citrin formerly was Director of the State Data Archive and Acting Director of the Survey Research Center at Berkeley. From 1990-1999 he served as Berkeley’s Faculty representative to the NCAA. From 2007-2017 he served as the Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies. In 2016 the International Society for Political Psychology awarded Citrin the Harold Lasswell Prize for “distinguished contributions to scientific research” and on his retirement in 2017 the Chancellor presented with with the prestigious Berkeley Citation for his contributions to the campus.

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Jack Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research
UC Berkeley
The Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science
798 Social Sciences Building #1950
Berkeley, CA 94720-1950
citrincenter@berkeley.edu