Davin earned his Ph.D. in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan in 2015. His research focuses on how race interacts with various spheres of U.S. politics to shape the attitudes, emotions and behavior of both everyday people and elites. Current projects include an examination of how race influences individuals’ emotional responses to politics, and a comparison of how news media frame policing issues pre- and post-Ferguson. Since 2016, Davin has served as co-director of the First Generation First Quarter Challenge. Housed in the school of social sciences, this is a peer mentorship program for first-year social-science students seeking to become the first in their families to graduate from a four-year university.