Candis Watts Smith
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About Candis
Smith tends to ask research questions that blur disciplinary lines; many of the questions she poses can only be answered by considering bodies of literature, theoretical frameworks, and methodological strategies found in Sociology, Political Science, Psychology and Public Policy. Her research interests focus on American political behavior and racial and ethnic Politics. Here, she focuses on individuals’ and groups’ policy preferences, particularly around social policies that exacerbate or ameliorate disparities and inequality between groups. Smith also has courtesy appointments in the Department of African, African American & Diaspora Studies and Department of Political Science.
Contributions
No Jargon Podcast
In the News
Publications
Focuses on whether, and the extent to which, the resources made available by Title X—the only federal policy aimed specifically at reproductive health care—are equitably accessible.
Notes the hope that the younger generation, which many believe manifests less racism and more acceptance of a multiracial society, may not be happening. Argues that this is because millennials, a generational cohort far removed from Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era, lack sufficient understanding of the structural nature of racial inequalities in the United States and therefore also the contextual and historical knowledge to be actively anti-racist.
Studies the role of racial animus in Americans’ political attitudes and policy preferences do so to help us understand national-level politics, and (racialized) policy is largely shaped at the state level.
Addresses stark injustices and builds on the lessons of racial inequality and intersectionality the Black Lives Matter movement has challenged its fellow citizens to learn. Provides a basic toolkit to readers to become knowledgeable participants in public debate, activism, and politics.
Notes the politics of abortion and the politics of contraception are converging. Finds growth of contraception deserts, or geographic areas with inequitable access to affordable family planning due to states’ broad discretion in Title X implementation.
Argues that even though we see a greater appreciation for the presence of nonwhite bodies in various spaces, we are not likely to see real systemic change in the American racial hierarchy because of a reliance on diversity ideology. Through an analysis of semistructured interviews with 43 white Millennials, this article outlines the ways in which diversity ideology’s four tenets—diversity as acceptance, commodity, intent, and liability—help whites maintain power in multiracial spaces.
Suggests that it is becoming increasingly important to examine the centrality of other identities in Black political behavior as the ethnic diversity among Blacks increases with large influxes of African, Afro-Latino, and Afro-Caribbean immigrants.
Explores the effects of dynamic demographic change on Black politics.
Examines the role of context on the mobilization of politicized racial group consciousness among African Americans and Black immigrants.
Provides a glimpse at the context in which racial intergroup relations will be developed in three southern locations that represent three distinct southern environments: majority black (Memphis, Tennessee), more or less equal black and white populations (Durham, North Carolina), and minority black (Little Rock, Arkansas).