Deborah Schildkraut

American Politics, Political Psychology
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Princeton University, 2000

Biography

Debbie Schildkraut received her Ph.D. from Princeton University and her B.A. from Tufts University. Her courses include the Politics of Ethnicity and American Identity, Political Psychology, Political Science Research Methods, Introduction to American Politics, Public Opinion, and Political Representation in the United States. She is the author of Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Press 'One' for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005). Both books examine the implications of the changing ethnic composition of the United States on public opinion in a variety of domains. For more on Schildkraut's research, see a project summary from the Russell Sage Foundation. She has also published articles in the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, Political Research Quarterly, and Perspectives on Politics. She previously served as an Assistant Professor of Politics at Oberlin College.

Professor Schildkraut's current project investigates the role that ethnic and national identification in the United States plays in shaping attitudes about representation. The result will be a comparative ethnic analysis about people's views regarding the representative-constituent relationship and the extent to which politicized identities shape these views. Issues of diversity and identity underlie many facets of political representation, and the ways in which we use various institutional mechanisms for establishing representation are often influenced by the degree of ethnic heterogeneity that communities face. Thus, our increasing diversity renders it important to assess whether people with various group attachments and perceptions of belonging (or mistreatment) feel "just like other Americans" regarding those mechanisms or whether new perspectives are emerging. Aspects of representation examined in this project include attitudes about electoral competition and politically homogenous communities, descriptive representation and redistricting, the trustee model of representation versus the delegate model, direct democracy, the priorities of elected officials, and the validity of non-elected entities as avenues for representation.

Courses

PS11: Introduction to American Politics
PS103: Political Science Research Methods
PS109: The Politics of Ethnicity and American Identity
PS111: Political Psychology
PS114: Political Representation in the United States

Books

• The Challenge of Democracy: American Government in Global Politics, 12th edition, with Kenneth Janda, Jeffrey Berry, and Jerry Goldman, Cengage Learning, 2014.
• Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  -- Winner, Robert E. Lane award for the best book in political psychology published in 2011 by the Political Psychology Organized Section of the American Political Science Association.
• Press 'One' for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity, Princeton University Press, 2005.

Articles and Book Chapters

• "The Complicated Constituency: A Study of Immigrant Opinions about Political Representation," Politics, Groups, and Identities, forthcoming.
• "Which Birds of a Feather Flock Together? Assessing Attitudes about Descriptive Representation among Latinos and Asian Americans," American Politics Research, forthcoming.
• "Amnesty, Guest Workers, Fences! Oh My! Public Opinion about 'Comprehensive Immigration Reform'," in Immigration and Public Opinion in Liberal Democracies, Gary Freeman, Randall Hansen, and David Leal, eds. Routledge, 2013 .
• "Nationalism and National Identity in the United States," The Handbook of Identity Theory and Research, Springer Publishing, 2011.
• "The Dynamics of Public Opinion on Ethnic Profiling After 9/11: Results From a Survey Experiment", American Behavioral Scientist, 2009
• "Defining American Identity in the Twenty-First Century: How Much "There" is There?" The Journal of Politics, August 2007
• "The Rise and Fall of Political Engagement Among Latinos: The Role of Identity and Perceptions of Discrimination," Political Behavior, September 2005
• "All Politics Is Psychological: A Review of Political Psychology Syllabi," Perspectives on Politics, December 2004
• "American Identity and Attitudes toward Official-English Policies," Political Psychology, September 2003
• "The More Things Change... American Identity and Mass and Elite Responses to 9/11," Political Psychology, September 2002
• "Official-English and the States: Influences on Declaring English the Official Language in the United States," Political Research Quarterly, June 2001

Working Papers

• "Boundaries of American Identity: Evolving Definitions of 'Us'", in preparation for Annual Review of Political Science.
• "Immigrant Resentment: When the Work Ethic Backfires," Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, 2008.
• "Identity Choices and Perceptions of Discrimination," Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, September, 2006
• "Sending a Message or Staying Mum: How Newspapers Write about Public Opinion in Non-Election Years" (with Tracy Mayfield), Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, 2009.

Datasets

• "The 21st Century Americanism Survey"

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