RESEARCH

IDENTITY POLITICS

IN THE UNITED STATES

Amidst growing diversity in the United States, assessing the political preferences of groups has become an increasingly complex task. In my current book project, I argue that a key to understanding politics lies in distinguishing identity from group membership. I develop measurement strategies to demonstrate that political attitudes respond to self-categorization and provide support using survey experiments and in-depth interviews. Though past research has relied on “checked boxes” and comparisons across social categories such as race, class, and gender to demonstrate what groups want from government, my work brings intersectionality to the fore and highlights the role that subjective identity plays in influencing political preferences. Taken together, these alternative measurement strategies reveal additional information about the links between identity and political preferences that have profound implications for representation in American politics.

Spry, Amber D. (2021). “Experiments in Identity” in Advances in Experimental Political Science. James Druckman and Donald Green (eds.). Pp. 431-446. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Spry, Amber D. (2020). Measuring Identity: Social Groups, Political Attitudes, and Design Strategy (under peer review).

Spry, Amber D. (2017). Identity and Political Attitudes: What insights can an alternative measurement strategy provide? In Sona, Matt and Sona Golder (eds). Symposium: Race and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective. CP: Comparative Politics Organized Section of the American Political Science Association, 27(2): 96-100.

Russell Sage Foundation Grant Profile

REPRESENTATION AND INEQUALITY

My work on representation and inequality focuses on minority constituents in the United States and the ways groups and individuals assert their political voices through voting, protest, and other forms of civic engagement. I have written on the effectiveness of minority legislators in representing constituent interests, the political implications of protest, and the conditions under which states have adopted direct democracy as a means to either help or hinder the advancement of policies to benefit minorities.

Broad, Marcus, Amber D. Spry, Shayla Nunnally, and Valeria Sinclair-Chapman. (2021). Black Generational Politics and the Black Lives Matter Movement: How political opportunity structures and respectability politics affect movement support (under peer review).

Spry, Amber D. and Shayla C. Nunnally. (2020). A Modern American Dilemma: American identity and support for the Black Lives Matter Movement (under peer review).

HATE CRIME AND PREJUDICE REDUCTION

I have worked extensively on the topic of hate crimes and strategies for prejudice reduction, focusing especially on the ways bias-related issues affect minoritized groups. I have also provided expertise as a consultant to the United States Department of Justice and as an advisory board member to the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.

Green, Donald P., & Amber D. Spry (2014). Hate Crime Research: Design and Measurement Strategies for Improving Causal Inference. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(3), 228–246.