Isaac Mehlhaff became a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago in 2025.
Mehlhaff studies political polarization and public opinion, with a focus on how political discourse, argumentation, and reasoning shape attitudes in democratic societies. His research examines why polarization emerges, how it can be measured more accurately, and under what conditions political debate can lead to meaningful attitude change rather than deeper division.
He received his PhD in 2023 from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also holds an MA from UNC-Chapel Hill and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.