Lisa Sanchez

Interests

Research

Lisa’s research agenda focuses on the study of American political institutions with an emphasis on the intricacies of representation in legislative bodies. In her dissertation, she examines the relationship between polarization in the U.S. congress and district demographics to better understand how congressional polarization arises, is propagated, and can be combated to help ease the gridlock that causes a sharp decline in the number of public polices generated by this branch of government. More broadly she is interested in minority legislative behavior and how the race and ethnicity of legislators at all levels (state and federal) reaps unique mixes of substantive and descriptive representation and whether these mixes reflect the minority populations they represent. At the state level, she has recently investigated the role of committee assignments for Latino state legislators linking these assignments to the procurement of particularized benefits for constituencies. In addition, Lisa studies the way in which public policies can either help or hinder representation. Her policy research focuses on immigration policy, money in politics, the politics of recession, religion and politics and health policies and how they either increase or decrease normative goods such equity and inclusion.Minority Legislative Behavior; Congressional Politics; State Legislative bodies; Representation; American Political Institutions; Racial and Ethnic Politics; Political Behavior; Money in politics; Immigration Policy; Religion and Politics; Health Policy; Polarization; Demographic Shifts; Public Policy

Teaching

Latino Politics, Race and Ethnicity, Public Policy, Immigration Policy, Congress, American Politics, American Political Institutions, Methods

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

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