Political Science

Dr. Lisa Bryant

Chair of the Department

Ph.D. University of New Mexico

Office: McKee Fisk 244A

Phone: 559-278-7612

Dr. Bryant's CV

Areas of expertise: American politics and government; political behavior; public opinion; campaigns and elections; election sciences; race / ethnicity; gender and politics; public policy; political methods.

Dr. Bryant's research focuses on primarily on election administration, public opinion and political behavior, campaigns and elections, and gender and representation.

In 2024, Dr. Bryant was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for her project, "Polarizing the Process: Partisan Effects on Election Officials and Trust in Elections". During her two-year fellowship, she will explore how partisan polarization has impacted the administration of elections and the administrator's profession. She will also explore how election skepticism grew and moved people to action, including running for positions in election administration.

Her work has been published in several journals including American Politics Research, Political Behavior, Elecion Law Journal, Electoral Studies, and Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Her article, “Working Mothers Represent: How Children Affect the Legislative Agenda of Women in Congress”, was awarded the Hahn-Sigelman Prize for best article published in American Politics Research in 2019 and she was invited to share this research with the U.S. Congress’s Moms in the House Caucus in 2020. Dr. Bryant was awarded the Provost’s Promising New Faculty Award in 2019.

In addition to academic teaching and research, she has experience in the field of public opinion survey research and data analysis in both the public and private sectors and has worked with several non-partisan organizations, such as Pew Charitable Trusts and the Democracy Fund, to better understand voter behavior and increase voter registration and turnout. (She also emphasizes the importance of voter registration in her classes and on campus and encourages everyone to register.)

Dr. Bryant currently serves on the national research advisory board for the Electronic Registration Information Center and on the editorial boards for Political Analysis and the Journal of Election Administration Reserch and Practice.

Teaching:

Dr. Bryant teaches a variety of courses, including: intro to American government, political behavior/public opinion, campaigns and elections, political psychology, state and local politics, public policy, and research methods.

Selected Publications:

Bryant, Lisa A., Anita Manion, and David C. Kimball. 2024. "A Tale of Two Counties: A Study of Vote Centers in Fresno County and St. Louis County." Election Law Journal.

Bryant, Lisa A., Michael J. Hanmer, Alauna C. Safarpour, and Jared McDonald. 2022. "The Power of the State: How Postcards from the State Increased Registration and Turnout in Pennsylvania." Political Behavior 44: 535-549.

Bryant, Lisa A. 2020. "Seeing is Believing: An Experiment on Absentee Ballots and Voter Confidence." American Politics Research 48(6): 700-704.

Mann, Christopher B. and Lisa A. Bryant. 2019. "If You Ask, They Will Come (to Register and Vote): Field Experiments with State Election Agencies on Encouraging Voter Registration." Electoral Studies: Vol. 63.

Bryant, Lisa A. and Julia Marin Hellwege. 2019. "Working Mothers Represent: How Children Affect the Legislative Agenda of Women in Congress." American Politics Research, 47(3), 447–470.

Atkeson, Lonna Rae, Alex N. Adams, Lisa A. Bryant, Luciana Zilberman, and Kyle L. Saunders. 2011. "Considering Mixed Mode Surveys for Questions in Political Behavior: Using the Internet and Mail to Get Quality Data at Reasonable Costs". Political Behavior 33(1):161-178.

Atkeson, Lonna Rae, Lisa A. Bryant, Thad E. Hall, Kyle Saunders, and R. Michael Alvarez. 2010. "A New Barrier to Participation: Heterogeneous Application of Voter Identification Policies". Electoral Studies 29(1): 66-73.

Maestas, Cherie D., Lonna Rae Atkeson, Thomas Croom, and Lisa A. Bryant. 2008. "Shifting the Blame: Federalism, Causal Attribution and Public Assignment of Blame Following Hurricane Katrina." Publius 38(4): 609-632.