My research examines representation from the perspective of the United States as a multi-racial and multi-ethnic polity. I have a robust research agenda that lies at the intersection of political behavior, institutions, and racial and ethnic politics, and falls into four areas: (1) examining the boundaries of descriptive representation, particularly as the United States enters an era of racial and ethnic plurality; (2) assessing the role of electoral structures that may promote or hinder the election of diverse candidates; (3) examining the role of interest groups as an intermediary to representation; and (4) alliances and competition between minority voters in increasingly competitive electoral districts.
New Research & Data
New Data from the Indian American Election Survey of 2020. Collected with Maneesh Arora, Wellesley College. Featured in the HuffPost, American Kahani, and the Washington Post.
Research on Orange County California’s Congressional Elections. Featured in The Washington Post, KCRW-Los Angeles and AAPI Data blog.
Journal Articles
“¿Quien Importa? State Legislators’ Responsiveness to Undocumented Immigrants,” with Matthew Mendez Garcia. Political Research Quarterly. Online 2022.
“Social Lobbying,” with Christian Grose, Pamela Lopez & Antoine Yoshinaka. Journal of Politics. 84(1): 367–382. 2022.
- Recipient of the Joseph L. Bernd Award for Best Paper published in the Journal of Politics in 2022 from the Southern Political Science Association.
- Recipient of the Alan Rosenthal Prize, recognizing working that strenghtens the practice of representative democracy from the American Political Science Association Legislative Studies Section, 2023.
“Black and Desi: Indian American perceptions of Kamala Harris,” with Danielle Casarez Lemi and Maneesh Arora. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. May 2022.
“Asian American Mobilization: The Effect of Candidates and Districts on Asian American Voting Behavior.” Political Behavior. 44: 105–131. 2022.
“The Influence of Candidate Race and Ethnicity: The Case of Asian Americans.” Politics, Groups and Identitites. 2021.
“Unpacking Identity: Opportunities and Constraints for Cross-Racial Collaboration,“ with Maneesh Arora and Sono Shah. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. 2021.
“From Discrimination to Mobilization- The Responsiveness of Community Based Organizations to Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern California,” with Manjusha Kulkarni. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community, 18(2). 2021.
“Latino Voting in Co-Partisan Elections,” with Matthew S. Mendez. California Journal of Politics and Policy. 10(2). 2018.
“Structuring Good Representation: Institutional Design and Elections in California,” with Jane Junn. PS: Political Science and Politics. 51 (2): p. 318-22. April 2018.
Chapters in Edited Volumes
“Indian-American Attitudes Towards Politics in India: Internal Divisions,” with Shubha Kamala-Prasad and Maneesh Arora. In Global India: The Pursuit of Influence and Status. (ed. Chris Ogden). Routledge. 2023.
“Asian American Mobilization and Political Identities,” with Jane Junn. In Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science. Ed. Sandy Maisel. New York: Oxford University Press. 2020. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0326
“Student Governance and the Politics of Race,” with Michele Scott-Taylor. Book Chapter in Brown, O., Hinton, K. & Howard-Hamilton, M. (Eds.) Unleashing Suppressed Voices on College Campuses: Diversity Issues in Higher Education and Student Affairs. New York, NY: Peter Lang. 2007.
Invited Submissions
“Independent Redistricting: An Insider’s View.” The Forum, A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics. December 2022.
“The Study of Asian American Politics: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” with Okiyoshi Takeda and Pei-te Lien. PS: Politics and Political Science, 54(2). 2021.
“The Broader Scholarly Context of Asian American Politics,” with Loan Le. PS: Politics and Political Science, 54(2). April 2021.
“Are Asian Americans a Meaningful Political Community,” with Pei-te Lien, Andrew Aoki, Okiyoshi Takeda, and Loan Le. PS: Politics and Political Science, 54(2). 2021.
Book Reviews
Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, first woman of color in Congress by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink. New York: New York University Press, 2022. 439p. cloth $35. Perspectives on Politics. Forthcoming.
Gerrymandering the States: Partisanship, Race, and the Transformation of American Federalism by Alex Keena, Michael Latner, Anthony J. McGann, and Charles Anthony Smith. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Political Science Quarterly. Forthcoming.
“Welcoming New Americans? Local Governments and Immigrant Incorporation” by Abigail Fisher Williamson. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018. 368 pp. $32.50 (paper).” The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. 5(1): p. 223-225. 2020.
Reports & Briefs
Recommendations for a Better Governed LA City. LA Governance Reform Project, with Ange-Marie Hancock, Gary Segura, Fernando Guerra, Boris Ricks and Raphael Sonnenshein. June 15, 2023.
Racial Discrimination, Hate, and the Politics of AAPIs in Los Angeles, with Nathan Kar Ming Chan. Report for the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State Los Angeles. May 2022.
Brief for the California Supreme Court as Amici Curiae, Pico Neighborhood Association v. City of Santa Monica.
The Worst Gerrymanders in U.S. State Legislatures, with Christian Grose, Jordan Carr Peterson and Matthew Nelson. Report for the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy. September 2019.
Working Papers
“Namaste USA: Kamala Harris and Indian American Descriptive Representation,” (with Maneesh Arora).
“The Effect of Co-Partisan Elections on Voter Behavior,” (with Jason Giannaros).
“Independents No More: The Influence of Asian Americans in the 2020 elections and the State of Georgia,” (with Jessica HyunJeong Lee).
“Asian American Attitudes towards Descriptive Representation: The Influence of Linked Fate and Partisanship.”
”Comparative Ethnic Politics: A Dynamic Relationship Between Latino and Asian American Voters.”
“The Limits of Partisan Motivated Reasoning: The Case of Immigration.”
“Exogenous Shocks in the Creation of U.S. Immigration & Refugee Policy: A Case Study of the Mariel Refugee Crisis & Salvadoran Influx.”
“Learning from Allies: Interest Group Influence and the Legislative Process,” (with Christian Grose).