Benjamin Radcliff is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His current research focuses on the social scientific study of happiness within the multi-disciplinary field sometimes labeled "happiness economics." He has published articles on the connections between politics and happiness in major peer reviewed scholarly journals, including the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and Social Forces, among other journals. This research program culminated in his 2013 book "The Political Economy of Human Happiness" (Cambridge University Press). Radcliff's earlier academic work attempted a radical reinterpretation of the implications of social choice theory for democratic thought; this work culminated in a 2000 article in the Journal of Politics that won the award for best article published in the journal in that year. Radcliff has also written articles on political participation, elections, and public policy outcomes in the industrial democracies and across the American States, with a special focus on the role of organized labor. His articles on these subjects have appeared in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and a variety of other journals. Radcliff has also written on non-academic topics, including the craft beer movement, has written rock music criticism for The Trouser Press, and is coauthor (with his wife Amy Gille-Radcliff) of the book "Understanding Zen," which attempted to provide an accessible introduction to that notoriously difficult subject.He has been a fellow at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and will be a Fulbright Scholar in residence at the Roosevelt Study Center in 2014.