An Intersectional Approach to Law & Society

Tulane University, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will support a postdoctoral fellow who will work with scholars in political science and law to understand the legal significance of the intersection of race and gender. Projects to which the postdoctoral fellow will contribute all address questions of effective democratic institutions, including courts, that include all people, and are attentive to the significance of both courts and institutions that are to attend to democratic preferences. One site for analysis is New Orleans, a city particularly ripe for analysis of the significance of race and gender for governance because of its demographic and socioeconomic diversity, and changes in the city. The postdoc will be able to contribute to cross-national comparisons, as scholars work on issues in both the United States and Brazil. The significance to governing institutions of intersecting ascriptive identities has only recently been a matter for systematic empirical investigation, making this a particularly innovative project. The project will support a postdoctoral fellow and an undergraduate student, training them in empirical social sciences across multiple disciplines. The project will also have substantial broader impacts because of the importance of democratic institutions to governance, and one project's analysis of how judges are selected.