University of Washington political scientist Megan Ming Francis says there is a dearth of academic book series being published on topics of race, ethnicity and politics. Now, she will start to change that.
Megan Ming Francis
An associate professor of political science, Francis will be the editor of a new series of books from Cambridge University Press called Cambridge Elements in Race, Ethnicity and Politics.
Francis, on leave and at Harvard for the 2019-2020 school year, answered a few questions about the new book series. The study of race and ethnicity, she said, will be “the unifying characteristic” of all manuscripts in the series.
“I am especially interested in highlighting research that has real-world implications and speaks to the political moment,” she said. “A central focus of this series will be to connect this type of research that happens in the academy to public discussions.”
Despite confusion now reigning in United States politics, she said, it’s clear that scholars, students and the public want “rigorous and accessible manuscripts that combine an analysis of the political system with a focus on racial politics.”
Francis studies American politics, race, the development of constitutional law, black politics and the post-Civil War South, and wrote the award-winning 2014 book Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State.