William Halm

William (Will) Halm is a third-year Ph.D. student whose research considers how globalization has restructured Western party systems around questions of national identity, thus driving the rise of right-wing populist parties. In this work, he considers how the competition between visions of national identity typifies conflict among populist parties. Currently, he is researching the conditions under which issue accommodation succeeds (and often fails) as a strategy against rising right-wing populists as support for established parties dwindles across the West.

Recently, he has researched attitudes toward Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Germany, the maintenance of boundaries of racial identification, and the ability of challenger populists to cast incumbent populists as the elite. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Socius, and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. Before coming to Berkeley, he graduated with a B.A. in Government from Wesleyan University, performed survey research at the University of Pennsylvania, and conducted content analysis at the Pew Research Center.