Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour

Dan T. Blue Endowed Chair of Political Science, North Carolina Central University

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About Gladys

Mitchell-Walthour's research focuses on Afro-Brazilian political behavior; racial attitudes; discrimination; affirmative action; Bolsa Familia (a social welfare program); and Afro-Brazilian women; and intersectionality. Mitchell-Walthour is the Vice-President of the Brazil Studies Association.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Lessons from Brazil for U.S. Black and Brown Politics as the United States Becomes a Minority-Majority Society

Key Findings Brief, May 2018

In the News

Opinion: "12 UW System Professors: We Condemn the Shooting of Jacob Blake. Here’s How We Can Save More Black Lives," Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour (with Keisha Lindsay, Peter Akubeze, Bianca Baldridge, John Eason, Abera Gelan, Frank C. King, Jr., Nolan Kopkin, Alphonso Simpson, Jeffrey Sommers, and Anika Wilson), The Cap Times, September 1, 2020.

Interviewed in "Crise deve deixar Executivo enfraquecido e economia em baixa, dizem brasilianistas," Estadão, April 26, 2020.

Publications

"The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political behavior in Contemporary Brazil" (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Uses an intersectional approach to analyze the impact of the experience of race on Afro-Brazilian political behavior in the cities of Salvador, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Seeks to explain Afro-Brazilian political behavior with a focus on affirmative action policy and Law 10.639 (which requires that African and Afro-Brazilian history be taught in schools).

"Economic Pessimism and Racial Discrimination in Brazil" Journal of Black Studies 48, no. 7 (2017): 675-697.

Finds that Afro-Brazilians who have experienced racial discrimination are more likely to believe they are now doing well economically compared to those who have not experienced racial discrimination.

"Race and the Politics of Knowledge Production Diaspora and Black Transnational Scholarship in the United States and Brazil" (with Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Examines Afro-Brazilian researchers' transnational experiences in the United States and African descendant U.S. scholars' experiences in Brazil.

"The Endogeneity of Race: Choosing Blackness in Salvador and São Paulo, Brazil." (with William Darity Jr.). Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 9, no. 3 (2014).

Examines race as both a dependent and independent variable in research on race in Brazil and the implications of endogeneity on studies of race in the United States.