Doctoral Dissertation Research: Expansion of Political Participation of Young Adults in Urban Communities

The political participation of young adults plays a vital role in building vibrant political communities across the United States. Studies have shown that there is significant variance in the participation in the political process across different demographic groups. This doctoral dissertation research addresses this variance to investigate the factors that impact how young urban adults from different demographic groups build strong political ties and expand political participation. The research trains a graduate student from an underrepresented background in methods of empirical scientific data collection and analysis and contributes to broadening the participation of groups historically underrepresented in science. The research provides local and state-level policymakers with insights to support their outreach and communication strategies to effectively engage diverse demographics of citizens and to design policies to foster an inclusive and representative democracy. To study the relationships between demographic variance and everyday political participation, the researchers use qualitative and behavioral methods. These include multi-sited participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis. Findings from this research contribute to debates in the anthropology of democracy and youth democratic citizenship. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.