U of A political scientist Angie Maxwell wins prestigious Carnegie Fellowship

The College of Arkansas’s personal Angie Maxwell is amongst this yr’s 28 Carnegie Fellows, a heady group of researchers and thinkers who will every get stipends of $200,000 to review the widening political polarization in the USA.

Maxwell is a professor of Southern research and the director of the Diane Blair Heart of Southern Politics and Society on the flagship Fayetteville campus.

Already well-known for her analysis and writing on the function of gender, race and religion in the politics of the American South, Maxwell will dedicate her fellowship to tracing the origins of political polarization amongst girls, notably white girls.

A few of it took root throughout World Conflict II, when maybe all was not as rosy for Rosie the Riveter as we’ve assumed, Maxwell stated. Ladies had little selection however to get to work, and a few of them needed to outsource childcare for the primary time. The laborious labor, financial pressures and trauma of wartime left different legacies moreover simply empowerment and risk.

“They did this as a result of they needed to,” Maxwell stated of ladies taking over manufacturing unit work to pay the payments when males have been away combating. “A whole lot of them missed important years with their youngsters that they mourned.”

Wherever it took root, this political polarization amongst girls is straightforward to identify in 2024 in debates over abortion entry, transgender rights, intercourse schooling and different hot-button political subjects.

“I’m actually making an attempt to grasp it from a empathetic place. Why do girls assist politics that make issues harder for different girls?” Maxwell stated.

She and the opposite 27 fellows have been chosen from greater than 360 candidates for the distinguished program. Began in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship is the largest award of its form for analysis within the humanities and social sciences.

“The inspiration’s assist of those fascinating initiatives is a thought of effort to mine scholarship for insights into the underlying causes of the political polarization that’s damaging our democracy,” Carnegie Company President Dame Louise Richardson stated. “We additionally hope to achieve insights into the means by which collectively we will mitigate the destructive results of this polarization on our society.”

Maxwell’s revealed work consists of “The Indicted South: Public Criticism, Southern Inferiority, and the Politics of Whiteness” and “The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics,” which she co-authored with Todd Shields.

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