Valeria Sinclair-Chapman
Please join me in congratulating Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, associate professor of political science, for her appointment as director of the Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion (CRDI), which is based in the College. Unlike the many administrative bodies focused on managing diversity and inclusion in the University, this research center supports and highlights the excellent scholarly work on diversity and inclusion happening in Liberal Arts and across the University. CRDI fosters and facilitates innovative research, pushing into new areas and looking at old questions in new ways, with more than 30 faculty affiliates from a variety of departments and colleges across the University working on a wide range of topics.
Valeria was also recently named a University Faculty Scholar. This five-year appointment, with an annual stipend of $10,000 per year, is in recognition of her outstanding scholarship, acknowledging her past accomplishments and supporting her future work.
Valeria’s research focuses on American political institutions, legislative politics, minority representation in Congress, and minority political participation. Broadly construed, her research examines why and how previously marginalized groups gain inclusion in the American political system. She is author or co-author of journal articles in the Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, Political Research Quarterly, and Politics, Groups, and Identities, as well as several book chapters and an award-winning book, Countervailing Forces in African-American Political Activism, 1973–1994 (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Her current research projects examine how legislators represent the interests of racial and ethnic minorities in Congress at various stages of the legislative process. Valeria is past president of the Women’s Caucus of the South in the Southern Political Science Association, and former co-president of the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.
Congratulations, Dr. Sinclair-Chapman!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts