Research Interests
Native American politics, political behavior, political identity, race and ethnic politics, civic engagement, political psychology, public opinion, representation, Indigenous sovereignty, survey methodology, and community-engaged research.
Biography
Natalie Jones-Kerwin (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in American Politics and Indigenous Politics. Her research examines how Native American identity, sovereignty, and community engagement shape political behavior and participation across tribal, state, and federal political systems.
Her dissertation, Citizens of Two Sovereigns: Native American Identity and Political Participation, develops a multidimensional framework of Native identity and investigates how identity influences political engagement across multiple political arenas. Using mixed methods, including original survey data, qualitative interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, her work explores the relationships among Indigenous identity, civic engagement, political participation, and tribal sovereignty.
In addition to her research, she is committed to mentoring students, advancing Indigenous scholarship, and strengthening partnerships between universities, Tribal Nations, and Indigenous communities. She serves in leadership roles with the Indigenous Graduate Student Organization, the Network for Development and Growth of Native Solidarity (NDGNS), and several Native community organizations.
Selected Awards and Fellowships
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Fellow (2022–2025)
- Yale University Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellow (2026–2027)
- American Political Science Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (2025)
- Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Award (2024–2026)
- Native Forward Scholars Fund Graduate Scholar (2021–2026)
- APSA Advancing Research Grant for Indigenous Politics (2023, 2024)
- Institute for Civically Engaged Research Fellow (2024)
- Yale–NYU American Indian Sovereignty Project Scholar (2022)
- Bucky Badger Graduate Student Impact Award (2025)
Publications
Jones-Kerwin, N., & Peterson, D. A. (2023). Group consciousness and the politics of American Indians. Political Behavior, 46, 217–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09903-9