IGP:
African American Studies

Mentor / Lab:
Dr. Nadia E. Brown

Specific Research Area / Project:
American Politics

Undergraduate Institution:
Jackson State University

Research Profile:

My areas of focus in my PhD program are American politics and public policy. My research interests include political knowledge and identity politics. I have been examining political knowledge, focusing specifically on how the conceptualization of political knowledge creates knowledge gaps. I am most interested in the racial gap in political knowledge. My goal is to challenge the current conceptualization of political knowledge by broadening what is considered to be knowledge. In doing so, I hope show that the racial gap in political knowledge diminishes as we reconceptualize political knowledge to represent information that is significant to all Americans.

About Me:

I started out as a pre-law student at Jackson State University. However, I was drawn to research because it allowed me more freedom. As a political scientist, I have the freedom to use many different methods and approaches to try to answer the many questions that I have. The summer before my senior year, I participated in the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute (RBSI), which is a program that pushes students of color to pursue careers in academia. This experience taught me more about what life would be like as a graduate student and as a professor. Coming from a family of educators, I was excited to choose this profession because it would allow me to teach at the collegiate level while conducting research. My advisor, Dr. Nadia Brown, participated in the RBSI program and recruited me to come to Purdue. Attending Purdue has allowed me to grow as a scholar and as a person.

Awards:

• Spring 2019 Graduate Assistantship Program Scholarship Recipient, National Conference of Black Political Scientists.
• Spring 2018 H.H. Remmers Award, Purdue University
• Fall 2017 Spring 2022 George Washington Carver Fellowship, Purdue University
• Fall 2016 Minority Fellowship Program, American Political Science Association

Publications:

• Caballero, G., Jackson, J., and Brown, N. (2018). “Community as Self: An Interview with Nadia Brown.” The Legislative Scholar, 3(2), pp. 17-19.

Presentations:

• Fall 2018
• CLAIM: Mentoring and a Black Studies Learning Community
• Jennifer Freeman Marshall, Valeria Chapman-Sinclair, Lupita Acosta-Roberts, Jasmine Jackson, Megan Williams Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN
• Spring 2018
• (Re)-Envisioning Detroit
• Jasmine Jackson
• The Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Spring Reception
• Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
• Spring 2018
• The Effect of Socioeconomic Factors on African American News Media Source Preference and Political Knowledge
• Jasmine Jackson
• PRIEC, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
• Spring 2018
• Examining the Racial Gap within Political Knowledge
• Jasmine Jackson
• Underrepresented Minority Visitation Research Expo, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Leadership:

• Treasurer, Political Science Graduate Student Association, 2018-2019