Chagai M. Weiss

Chagai M. Weiss is an assistant professor and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair in Israel Studies in the department of political science and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the political effects and institutional remedies of conflict and polarization, with an emphasis on three central questions: How do institutions shape intergroup relations in divided societies? What are the effects of conflict on political preferences and behaviors? How can social scientists improve the design, implementation, and interpretation of experiments?

Weiss is the author of the forthcoming book Delivering Tolerance: How Unintended Institutional Inclusion Reduces Prejudice (Princeton University Press, 2026). His research on conflict and polarization has been published or is forthcoming in various outlets, such as Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and the Journal of Public Economics.

Weiss’s project, “Civic Education in a Polarized America,” examines the evolution of civic education in the United States, evaluates its depolarizing effects, and assesses whether bipartisan endorsements can encourage educators to adopt evidence-based, depolarizing curricula. Drawing on new data and large-scale field experiments conducted in partnership with leading civic education and depolarization organizations, the project will generate systematic evidence on how civic education can strengthen democratic norms and promote cross-partisan cooperation.

May 2026