Political Organizations and Social Movements | Department of Political Science

Our interdisciplinary research explores the ways in which institutions and organizations influence, guide, advance, or hinder politics, and we explore the vast array of collective action and social movement activities taking place at the local, state, national and international levels.

Sonia E. Alvarez

My main areas of specialization are social movements and protest politics, comparative and transnational feminisms, and Latin American politics and cultures, with a focus on Brazil and the Southern Cone. My recent (co-edited) books include Quem São as Mulheres das Políticas para as Mulheres no Brazil? Vol. I, O...Read more

Angélica María Bernal

Angélica Maria Bernal is Associate Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst and faculty affiliate with the Center for Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research and teaching focus on issues of popular power, constitutional change, decolonial theory and politics, and indigenous social movements and resistance in...Read more

Paul M. Collins, Jr.

His research focuses on understanding bias and inequality in the American legal system, particularly in the behavior of actors like judges, legislators, presidents, the media, and interest groups.

I have published articles in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Journal of Law and Courts, Journal of Politics, Law...Read more

Ray La Raja

Ray La Raja's areas of expertise include political parties, interest groups, campaign finance, elections, political participation, American state and local politics, public policy and political reform. He is co-author with Brian Schaffner and Jesse Rhodes of Hometown Inequality: Race, Class, and Representation in American Local Politics (Cambridge University Press 2020). He...Read more

Jesse Rhodes

I am a Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

My research revolves around struggles over race, representation, and civil and voting rights, and their consequences for politics and policymaking in the United States. I have written extensively on inequality in representation, voting rights politics,...Read more

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Sonia E. Alvarez

Angélica María Bernal

Paul M. Collins, Jr.

Ray La Raja

Jesse Rhodes