Research Interests
Political behavior; Political communication; American Political Economy; Cultural narratives and state legitimacy; Policy feedback
Biography
Emily Matthews is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, studying American Politics. Her research explores how Americans’ everyday environments, including the media they consume, the institutions they work within, and the neighborhoods they live in, shape how they understand themselves as political actors. She’s especially interested in how cultural narratives and institutional experiences influence trust in government, citizens’ sense of political efficacy, and feelings of legitimacy or exclusion. She draws on work from American Political Economy, political communication, and the policy feedback literature to examine how identity and power are shaped through both narratives and experiences.
Before coming to UW–Madison, Emily earned an MLitt in International Security Studies and an MA (Hons) in International Relations and Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews.