Combining robust research with impactful mentoring

Dr. Michelson’s ongoing national research projects on how best to motivate increased voter turnout are also national mentoring efforts. She works with graduate students and early career scholars, building a network of scholars. The projects benefit from their insights and fresh perspectives, as well as their in-depth knowledge of cutting-edge research and new methodological tools. At the same time, the students benefit by learning from one another, and from Dr. Michelson, about how to conduct research, communicate with funders and community members, and generate published research.

Dr. Ashley C.J. Daniels

Dr. Ashley C.J. Daniels (Ph.D. Howard University) is the 2022-2023 Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute Visiting Fellow, Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Stephanie L. DeMora

Dr. Stephanie L. DeMora (Ph.D. University of California, Riverside) is the Arlin M. and Neysa Adams Postdoctoral Fellow in the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In fall 2024 she will be Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University.

Sarah V. Hayes

Sarah V. Hayes is a first-generation PhD student at Georgetown University and received her M.A. from the University of California, Riverside. Her research interests are Black politics, political behavior, and public policy.

Dr. Jasmine C. Jackson

Jasmine C. Jackson (Ph.D., Purdue University) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas Christian University.

jazmin jimenez

Jazmin Jimenez (she/her/ella) is a Ph.D. student in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University.

Dr. Maricruz Ariana Osorio

Dr. Maricruz Ariana Osorio is an assistant professor at Bentley University. She received her PhD from the University of California, Riverside). Dr. Osorio studies political behavior, gender politics, and immigration.

Dr. Kesicia Dickinson

Kesicia A. Dickinson is Assistant Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi. She studies gender politics, race and ethnicity politics, and political behavior.

Black girls vote (Party at the mailbox)

On November 30, 2015, Nykidra Robinson launched Black Girls Vote, Inc. – a non-partisan, grassroots organization that focuses on encouraging, mobilizing, and activating Black women to use their collective voting power, to be civically-engaged, and to advocate for issues that impact Black women and their families. In April 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson created the Party at the Mailbox (PATM) campaign, an innovative and groundbreaking voter education campaign. Dr. Melissa R. Michelson led the academic side of the project, including a mix of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students, which conducted a robust evaluation of the campaign’s effect on voter attitudes, identities, and behavior.

PUBLICATIONS & AWARDS

• Our book about this project, Motivating Black Turnout with Celebrations of Community, with a foreword by Nyki, will be published in fall 2024 by New York University Press.

• Melissa R. Michelson and Nykidra Robinson. 2022 APSA Distinguished Award for Civic and Community Engagement.

• Melissa R. Michelson, Sarah V. Hayes, and Stephanie L. DeMora. 2020. “Party at The Mailbox: A Celebration of Community.” Political Science Now, American Political Science Association, Dec. 18, 2020.

• Reprinted in Political Science Today 1, 2 (May 2021): 11–12.

WORKING PAPERS

Mobilizing Student Registration and Voting

Despite their potential power to cast decisive votes in U.S. elections, college student voter turnout is generally very low. In 2020-2021, campuses around the country participated in a coordinated program to increase college student voter registration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey and focus group data collected in spring 2021, and with support from the Foundation for Civic Leadership, Team Michelson explored the effectiveness of those efforts. We found evidence of understudied barriers to student registration that continue to restrict the effectiveness of those efforts. We also found that students operated as knowledge brokers, sharing with family members the information they were receiving on campus about how to register and vote using new virtual options offered due to the pandemic.

PUBLICATION