Deborah Schildkraut

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Deborah Schildkraut
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Scientific career
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Institutions

Deborah J. Schildkraut is an American political scientist. She is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Tufts University, where she has also been department chair. She studies the relationship between American public opinion and the changing ethnic composition of the United States. She is an expert on American national identity, and how it interacts with immigration to the United States. [1]

Contents

Education and positions

Schildkraut studied political science at Tufts University, obtaining a BA in political science in 1995. [2] She then attended graduate school in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, where she earned an MA in 1995 and a PhD in 2000. [2]

After graduating with her PhD in 2000, Schildkraut joined the Department of Politics at Oberlin College. [2] In 2004, she moved to Tufts University. [2] She was the chair of the Department of Political Science at Tufts University from 2015 to 2018, and began a second term as department chair in 2019. [2] In addition to the Department of Political Science, she has also been affiliated with the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life since 2015, and has been a faculty fellow there. [2]

Research

In 2005, Schildkraut published the book Press "One" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity. In Press "One" for English, Schildkraut uses opinion data from sources like public opinion surveys and focus groups to study the popularity of legislation that would make English the sole national language of the United States, arguing that peoples' opinions on language policy issues are shaped by their ideas about American national identity. [3] Schildkraut examines how four major themes in American identity — liberalism, ethnoculturalism, civic republicanism, and the continual incorporation of immigrant groups — affect respondents' views on three potential policies: making English the official language of the United States, mandating that election ballots can only be printed in English, and ceasing to offer bilingual education in American schools. [4] Schildkraut introduces the last of these themes in American identity as an extension of a theory by Rogers Smith, giving the name "incorporationism" to the continual assimilation or incorporation of immigrant groups into the American polity. [5] Schildkraut shows that invoking different themes of American identity can affect respondents' attitudes towards the various language policies; for example, endorsing ethnoculturalism can increase respondents' support for making English the American national language, whereas rejecting ethnoculturalism can decrease it. [6] Schildkraut also shows that the relationship between conceptions of American identity and support for complex policies like bilingual education is weaker than the relationship between identity and policies which are highly abstract and symbolic, such as making English the national language. [5]

In 2004, Schildkraut received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation to conduct the 21st Century Americanism Survey, which asked questions designed to study the connection between debates about immigration policy and ideas of American identity, and under-sampled white Americans to better understand the attitudes of non-white Americans. [7] The analysis of the 21st Century Americanism Survey resulted in Schildkraut's 2011 book, Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration. [7] In Americanism in the Twenty-First Century, Schildkraut studies the cohesiveness of American cultural identity in light of America's traditional role as a destination for immigration and its history as a settler society, as well as the interaction between American group identity and American institutions. [8] The book is partly motivated by popular assertions that recent immigrants to the United States have tended to not adopt a fully American identity. [9] Schildkraut studies empirically how much content and consensus there is regarding the idea of an American national identity, and measures the extent of Americans' attachment to this identity. [9] In addition to continuing to explore the interaction between attitudes towards immigration and the four themes of American identity used in her previous book Press "One" for English, Schildkraut studies how much immigrants come to self-identify as American. [10] Schildkraut finds that different subgroups in America have substantial overlap in how they define American identity, and that new immigrants do adopt American cultural identity more strongly than popular criticisms might suggest. [10] For Americanism in the Twenty-First Century, Schildkraut received the 2012 Robert E. Lane Award from the Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Association, which is given annually to the author of the best book in political psychology published in the previous year. [11]

In 2017, Schildkraut and her collaborators were awarded a Presidential Authority Award from the Russell Sage Foundation for a study of the effects of state-level immigration policies on peoples' attitudes about belonging. [12] In 2012, Schildkraut joined Ken Janda, Jeff Berry, and Jerry Goldman as a coauthor of the 12th edition of the textbook, The Challenge of Democracy: American Government in Global Politics, with a 15th edition scheduled for 2021. [2]

Schildkraut has been an editorial board member of The Journal of Politics , of Polity, and of Politics, Groups, and Identities. [2] She has been interviewed, or her work has been cited, in media outlets including The New York Times , [13] The Washington Post , [14] Vox , [15] WBUR, [16] and Time . [17] Schildkraut has also written articles for outlets including The Washington Post [18] and The Conversation . [19]

Selected works

Selected awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration to the United States</span> Overview of immigration to the United States

Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country in the world, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States' population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiculturalism</span> Existence of multiple cultural traditions within a single country

The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchangeably, and for cultural pluralism in which various ethnic groups collaborate and enter into a dialogue with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities. It can describe a mixed ethnic community area where multiple cultural traditions exist or a single country within which they do. Groups associated with an indigenous, aboriginal or autochthonous ethnic group and settler-descended ethnic groups are often the focus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Americanism</span> Dislike of the United States and/or its policies

Anti-Americanism is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Americans</span> Americans of German birth or descent

German Americans are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the United States Census Bureau in its American Community Survey. German Americans account for about one third of the total population of people of German ancestry in the world.

Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic enclave</span> Geographical spot with high concentration of certain ethnic groups

In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration of ethnic firms. Their success and growth depends on self-sufficiency, and is coupled with economic prosperity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American nationalism</span> Nationalism in support of the collective identity of the United States

American nationalism, is a form of civic, ethnic, cultural or economic influences found in the United States. Essentially, it indicates the aspects that characterize and distinguish the United States as an autonomous political community. The term often serves to explain efforts to reinforce its national identity and self-determination within their national and international affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration</span> Movement of people into another country or region to which they are not native

Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and other short-term stays in a destination country do not fall under the definition of immigration or migration; seasonal labour immigration is sometimes included, however.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of immigration</span>

The sociology of immigration involves the sociological analysis of immigration, particularly with respect to race and ethnicity, social structure, and political policy. Important concepts include assimilation, enculturation, marginalization, multiculturalism, postcolonialism, transnationalism and social cohesion.

Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in which they are not citizens. Illegal immigration occurs when people immigrate to a country without having official permission to do so. Opposition to immigration ranges from calls for various immigration reforms, to proposals to completely restrict immigration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadians</span> Citizens and nationals of Canada

Canadians are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Canadian.

Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native or indigenous inhabitants over those of immigrants, including the support of immigration-restriction measures.

Criticism of multiculturalism questions the ideal of the maintenance of distinct ethnic cultures within a country. Multiculturalism is a particular subject of debate in certain European nations that are associated with the idea of a nation state. Critics of multiculturalism may argue against cultural integration of different ethnic and cultural groups to the existing laws and values of the country. Alternatively critics may argue for assimilation of different ethnic and cultural groups to a single national identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiculturalism in Canada</span> Canadian social situation

Multiculturalism in Canada was officially adopted by the government during the 1970s and 1980s. The Canadian federal government has been described as the instigator of multiculturalism as an ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration. The 1960s Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism is often referred to as the origin of modern political awareness of multiculturalism, resulting in Canada being one of the most multicultural nations in the world. The official state policy of multiculturalism is often cited as one of Canada's significant accomplishments, and a key distinguishing element of Canadian identity and Canadian values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiculturalism in Australia</span>

Multiculturalism in Australia is today reflected by the multicultural composition of its people, its immigration policies, its prohibition on discrimination, equality before the law of all persons, as well as various cultural policies which promote diversity, such as the formation of the Special Broadcasting Service.

Sarah J. Mahler is an American author and cultural anthropologist. She was part of a group of anthropologists attempting to change migration studies to a more comprehensive way to understand how migrants crossing international borders remain tied to their homelands and how cultural practices and identities reflect influences from past and present contexts, called "transnational migration."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Asian American Survey</span>

National Asian American Survey is a nonpartisan organization that conducts representative surveys of the political and social preferences of the Asian American and Pacific Islander population in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Kaufmann</span> Canadian political and religious demographer

Eric Peter Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London. He is a specialist on Orangeism in Northern Ireland, nationalism, and political and religious demography. He has authored, co-authored, and edited multiple books on these subjects.

Elizabeth F. Cohen is an American political scientist. She is a professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a senior research associate at the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. She is a political theorist who studies citizenship, immigration, and value of time in politics.

Melissa R. Michelson is an American political scientist. She is a professor of political science at Menlo College, and in July 2020 she became the Dean of Arts and Sciences there. She studies voter mobilization and engagement in the United States, particularly among minority communities, as well as public opinion and political communication.

References

  1. ↑ "How the Belief in American Exceptionalism Has Shaped the Pandemic Response". Smithsonian . Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "People: Deborah Schildkraut". Tufts University. April 2020. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Review of Press "One" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity". Education Week. 24 (39): 36. June 8, 2005.
  4. ↑ Theiss‐Morse, Elizabeth (December 20, 2006). "Review of Press "One" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity". Political Psychology. 28 (1): 136–139. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00557.x.
  5. 1 2 Ricento, Thomas (June 2005). "Review of Press "One" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity". Political Science Quarterly. 120 (4): 706–707. doi:10.1002/j.1538-165X.2005.tb01442.x.
  6. ↑ Clayton, Thomas (483–484). "Review of Press "One" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity". Journal of Politics. 68 (2): May 2006. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00420_18.x.
  7. 1 2 "Americanism in the 21st Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration". Russell Sage Foundation. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  8. ↑ Ariely, Gal (March 1, 2013). "Review Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration". Public Opinion Quarterly. 77 (1): 423–426. doi:10.1093/poq/nfs071.
  9. 1 2 Freeman, Gary P. (September 2011). "Review Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration". Perspectives on Politics. 9 (3): 687–688. doi:10.1017/S1537592711001976. S2CID   144484674.
  10. 1 2 Shapiro, Robert Y. (April 1, 2012). "Review Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration". Political Science Quarterly. 127 (1): 149–150. doi:10.1002/j.1538-165X.2012.tb02221.x.
  11. 1 2 "Robert E. Lane Award". American Political Science Association. 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Spring 2017 Presidential Authority Awards". Russell Sage Foundation. June 19, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  13. ↑ Edsall, Thomas B. (April 29, 2020). "Trump Hasn't Given Up on Divide and Conquer". The New York Times . Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  14. ↑ Hopkins, Dan (February 10, 2013). "How accents influence the immigration debate". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  15. ↑ Taub, Amanda (July 20, 2015). "Donald Trump and the politics of white insecurity". Vox. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Demographics Could Be A Challenge To Warren's Prospective 2020 Bid03". WBUR. October 1, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  17. ↑ Steinmetz, Katy (2018). "'The Most Hated Person On Campus': Why Some College Republicans Are Channeling Donald Trump". Time . Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  18. ↑ Schildkraut, Deborah J. (October 6, 2017). "Does the Republican Party really have a young person problem?". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  19. ↑ Schildkraut, Deborah (July 3, 2018). "Americans are not as divided or conservative on immigration as you might think". The Conversation. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
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