THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Postdoctoral Scholars
Postdoctoral Scholar
Benjamin Kinnard studies American political institutions with a primary focus on the separation of powers between Congress, the executive branch, and the federal bureaucracy, and a secondary focus on local governments. His work examines topics such as the motivations of congressional oversight of the executive branch, the responsiveness of bureaucratic policymakers to congressional oversight, and coalition formation between Congress, the President, and interest groups in lobbying bureaucratic policymakers. Projects in this research agenda showcase the limits of political control of the bureaucracy and how political control interacts with information provision. His research has been published in journals such as Legislative Studies Quarterly and the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy. He earned his PhD in Political Science from Emory University in 2026.
Research Interests: Congress, the Presidency, Bureaucratic Politics, Lobbying, Local Politics