APSA is pleased to announce the members of the 2025-2026 Class of the APSA-Sponsored Congressional Fellows!

The American Political Science Association (APSA) Congressional Fellowship Program is a highly selective, nonpartisan program devoted to expanding knowledge and awareness of Congress. Since 1953, it has brought select political scientists, journalists, federal employees, health specialists, and other professionals to Capitol Hill to experience Congress at work through fellowship placements on congressional staffs.

POLITICAL SCIENCE FELLOWS

TIM BYNION

Tim Bynion received his PhD in political science from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in 2025. His main area of research is American politics, specifically legislative politics and electoral politics. For his dissertation, he investigated party disloyalty in Congress by incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods of research to analyze the factors that influence members to act against the wishes of their party leaders. During his time at George Mason University, he also conducted experimental research projects investigating the most effective ways to encourage college students to vote in state and local elections. Before coming to George Mason University, he graduated with a BS in political science from Towson University in 2018.

GABRIEL FOY-SUTHERLAND

Gabriel Foy-Sutherland is a political scientist specializing in American political parties, interest groups, and elections. His research examines how parties and candidates exert message control in elections amid rising competition from wealthy outside interests. His work on redboxing—a strategic form of campaign communication-has been featured in The Guardian, Politico, Business Insider, and other outlets. His current research projects focus on other strategic innovations as well as the role of political consultants as “information brokers” in congressional elections and patterns of strategic advocacy by interest groups over time. Gabriel will complete his doctorate in political science at the University of Chicago in 2025. He holds an MSC in international relations from the London School of Economics and a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from the University of Manchester. Before his doctoral studies, he worked in public relations and political communications in London.

FLORIAN GAWEHNS

Florian Gawehns recently received his PhD in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park His research focuses on American politics, particularly Congress, intraparty dynamics, and foreign policy. He has taught classes at Maryland and other DC-area universities focused on US politics, political parties, the presidency, international relations and public policy. Before starting his PhD, he spent three years working for an NGO in his home country, Germany. He holds a MA and BA in political science from Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, a research-oriented university in Halle, Germany. Florian’s research examines the intersection of Congress, ideology, and foreign policy. His dissertation explores when and why members of Congress engage with foreign policy—an area typically dominated by the executive branch and rarely prioritized by voters. In addition, he and his coauthor Matthew Green (The Catholic University of America) analyze the emergence of ideological intraparty organizations in US state legislatures modeled after the congressional House Freedom Caucus in a recent paper published in State Politics & Policy Quarterly. They find that, while these caucuses were initially driven by legislators’ concerns over ideological unity, they are now increasingly fueled by conservative entrepreneurs aiming to build a national network.

SARA MORELL

Sara Morell is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. Her research is at the intersection of gender and political behavior, with a particular interest in the diversity of women’s political representation. Her current book project evaluates the role of women’s political organizations in addressing women’s material and psychological barriers to running for office, both overall, and across identities like race, ethnicity, and partisanship. Her research has been published in the British Journal of Political Science, Political Psychology, and via the Cambridge Elements in Gender and Politics. Her research has received generous support from the National Science Foundation’s Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS), the American Political Science Association, and the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford Fellowship and Center for the Employment of Women+. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 2023.

JULIA RAVEN

Julia Raven will be joining the APSA Congressional Fellowship with a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley (expected summer 2025). Her areas of specialization are international relations and comparative politics. Raven is particularly interested in the origins of institutions and their (in)ability to adapt to meet new threats or opportunities. Her dissertation investigates the strategic variation of colonial military design and the durability of historic military structures into the contemporary era, even when those structures no longer serve states’ needs. In joining the APSA Congressional Fellowship, Raven aims to deepen her understanding of the policymaking process while applying her research on institutional development and its challenges to ongoing policy projects. While at UC Berkeley, Raven was a Peace Scholar with the United States Institute of Peace, a summer research associate and adjunct with the RAND Corporation, a fellow with the Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (UC San Diego), and a Georges Lurcy Fellow (UC Berkeley). Prior to attending UC Berkeley, Raven graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with degrees in political science and communications studies.

ASHLEY WRIGHT

Ashley Wright holds a DPhil in politics from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research explores how key congressional committees integrate US foreign assistance with foreign policy and national security priorities. It involved the collection of original data on US foreign aid appropriations and elite interviews. She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Minerva Global Security Program at the Blavatnik School of Government (Oxford), where she collected data on contested cross-border spaces and examined US military interventions. Ashley has previously taught at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate level and worked in Washington, DC. She holds an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall). She is the co-author of a chapter on the “Political outcomes of aid” with Julien Labonne (Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford) and Cesi Cruz (UCLA), in the recent Elgar Handbook on Aid and Development. ■