Professor Alex-Assensoh’s research examines the impact of social and economic contexts on political behavior. She teaches courses in the fields of political behavior, racial and ethnic politics and urban politics. Her published books and edited volumes include Neighborhoods, Family and Political Behavior (1998), Black and Multiracial Politics in America (2000) and African Military History and Politics (2001). Her research essays have been published in Journal of Politics; Urban Affairs Review; PS: Political Science and Politics, and also in edited volumes. Over the years, her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education, and the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIE/Fulbright).
An Alumnae of the Ralph Bunche Institute for Political Science, Professor Alex-Assensoh served, for three years, as the Book Review Editor for Urban Affairs Review and, currently, for the Netherlands-based Journal of African and Asian Affairs. She also served as an Executive Council Member of the American Political Science Association’s Urban Politics and Race, Ethnicity and Politics sections. Currently, Professor Alex-Assensoh is serving as a member of the American Political Science Association’s Committee on Civic Engagement as well as a member of the Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession. Her current research is a book project, which explores how social and economic contexts influence civic engagement among American youth, with an emphasis on high school seniors
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Research
In a broad sense, most of Yvette's research in political science focuses broadly on the impact that contexts - including family, historical, economic, political, religious and most recently legal -- have in facilitating, creating, ordering and transforming the way that people think and behave politically. As a result, Yvette's research is decidedly interdisciplinary because it draws on the perspectives of political science, geography, sociology, history and the law. It moves beyond a focus on the individual to focus on the actions of the elite, the working of the political economy, the presence of history and the overarching influence of the law.
For example, Yvette's first book, Neighborhoods, Family and Political Behavior in Urban America, was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. In it, she explored how the intersection of race and poverty structured the political behavior of black and white residents in high poverty as well as low poverty neighborhoods. Her subsequent book-length project, Black and Multiracial Politics in America, was a co-edited volume that explored the political implications of increasing racial and ethnic diversity for Black, White, Black, and Latino Americans in terms of attitudes about government, coalition building among minorities, representation of racial minorities in the press. African History and Politics: Ideological and Military Incursions (co-authored) is her third book-length project, which moved her research beyond American borders to examine the implications of political leadership of African political and military leaders. In the book, she and her co-author focused on how a variety of factors, including ethnic differences affect African political as well as military leadership. Most recently, she was invited to work with a group of political scientists to examine how the design and structure political institutions and processes, in America, influence the ability of Black, White, Latino and Asian Americans to participate in the political process. In that work -- titled Democracy At Risk, she and her co-authors have dealt with the tension between the desire for democracy and the desire for diverse community. Yvette's current project, Immigration and Racial Politics in America, focuses on the implications of the new immigration for theories of racial politics in America. The forthcoming book's multiracial cast of authors is seeking to explain how the consequences of the new immigration square with extant theories of how race operates in American society. She is also working to complete a study supported by the National Science Foundation on the political consequences of American racial school resegregation. There, her focus is not only on the individuals but also on the role of the courts in defining and redefining educational equality. She has also completed several scholarly journal articles and book chapters on the research themes explored above.
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Teaching Philosophy
In Yvette's opinion, college and university professors have an awesome opportunity to influence society by the way they teach and engage students. Therefore, her teaching is animated by the fervent belief that her research, lectures and pedagogy make a difference in the lives of her numerous students. She is also motivated by the belief that all students are "teachable", and that teachers must do their best to encourage all students to develop their own intellectual talents for personal as well as civic benefits. Yvette added: " Armed with these beliefs, I structure all of my courses as interactive, deliberative, collaborative and active engagement environments where students are eager to engage in the learning process. Yvette's experiences in teaching tough issues about political behavior, race, inequality and power have provided her with the insights to share strategies with colleagues in scholarly writings about teaching as well as in her role as a faculty development consultant."
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Professional and Community Service
As a scholar, Yvette envisions service as an integral part of her career as an academic. For her, it is animated by the belief that college and university professors have a responsibility to work toward the betterment of society. Based on her personal experiences with and research on the politics of power, she considers service as an opportunity to empower by advocating for (i) more equitable distribution of resources and (ii) by providing education-cum-perspectives for decisionmakers. In terms of a more equitable distribution of resources, she explains that she has worked hard on university and professional committees to advocate for as well as to provide more equitable distribution of resources to students, faculty, staff , gender as well as racial minorities and members of the larger Indiana community. She has, as well, worked diligently to empower administrators and decision-makers by consulting, providing information and perspectives about the less fortunate and highlighting the positive and the negative consequences of proposed policies and decisions. As part of her service, Yvette and her husband consistently provide financial support for several secular and religious organizations in Bloomington and in other parts of the country. She has written essays in the popular press, in an effort to inform lay members of our community about important scholarly issues. Consequently, Yvette has been invited to lead several workshops and seminars on a myriad of topics ranging from graduate education to faculty development and diversity-cum-equity issues. In her capacity as a researcher on racial politics as well as in her role as Co-President of the Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, which represents faculty, students and staff at Indiana University's eight campuses, she is regularly invited to consult with the administrators about diversity and equity issues.
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