Jamil S. Scott-Cummings (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Government Department at Georgetown University. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Michigan State University. Her research interests focus on the political behavior of elites and the mass public in the United States, with particular emphasis on how race and gender shape political decision-making. She uses various methodological strategies in her work, including surveys, experiments, and interviews, to capture how identity shapes political life. In addition, her work (with various co-authors) has been published in journals such as Politics, Groups & Identities, Journal of Race, Ethnicity & Politics, American Politics Research, and Journal of Politics. Her book, When and Where They Enter: Black Women’s Candidate Emergence at the State Level, is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press.
Project: Making Their Own Way: Black Women’s Impact in State Legislative Institutions
This project investigates how state legislative contexts create specific opportunities or constraints for Black women officeholders. While partisan majority status is the most recognized predictor of legislative bill passage, I argue that power is also structured by race and gender hierarchies. State legislative contexts create specific “frictions” that disproportionately constrain Black women. My research builds on existing knowledge by shifting the focus from the federal to the state level, where variation in party control and leadership allows for a more granular test of intersectional representation. By utilizing a multi-method approach, I examine how institutional design and “discursive environments”, the patterns of respect and collegiality in floor debates, mediate the substantive representation of Black women in state legislative politics.