People-ing Politics Research Network & Conference

We are collaborating with James R. Jones and his Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America at Rutgers University, Newark, to build a network of scholars approaching U.S. politics with attention to the social and cultural.

We believe that:

• American democracy is in trouble.
• We need a more sociologically informed and people-centered approach to politics. This means, broadly:
  • Attending to the ways people’s cultures and social groups shape their approaches to politics
  • Centering issues of race, class, and other forms of inequality
  • Looking at the people whose voices and actions often fly under the radar — both behind-the-scenes actors in political institutions and politically disengaged citizens.
• These approaches can better inform efforts to address interlinked crises of rising authoritarianism, increasing inter-group hostility, and steepening economic inequality (among others).