Howdy! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. I integrate scholarship in political science, psychology, and sociology to explore the ways that social disadvantage affects people’s motivation to participate in the democratic process and the ways in which they perceive their own qualifications for political participation. I am particularly interested in how the effects of social disadvantage on political engagement often go beyond the well-documented constraints imposed by resource deprivation and include psychological barriers, such as a lack of a sense of belonging, that prevent people from participating in ways they could if they felt less constrained by social roles and other cultural norms.
Kristy M. Pathakis, Ph.D. 