Annually, the American Political Science Association identifies the best paper on political networks that has been presented at a political science conference by a graduate student and grants them the John Sprague Award. At the 2016 Annual Meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, UMass graduate student Mia Costa presented her paper "Sharing Constituencies: Polarization and Representation in the Extended Party Network". In the paper, Mia examined the question of whether or not there has been polarization within political parties by looking at the advocacy organizations of extended party networks. Her findings concluded that liberal organizations are much more likely to share constituencies and ideologies than conservative organizations.

As a result of Mia's hard work, she has been awarded the 2016 John Sprague Award. 

Mia is expected to complete her graduate program in May 2018. She is principally interested in American Politics and Experimental Social Science. It is obvious in "Sharing Constituencies" that Mia uses a scientific lens in her political research. Mia is currently an Assistant Book Review Editor for the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and a Research Fellow for UMass Poll, which is the UMass Department of Political Science's public polling service. She is also a Research Assistant for Professor Ray La Raja and a Research Consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Congratulations to Mia Costa for her ongoing accomplishments, and we look forward to seeing more from her!