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Doctoral Student
American Politics

• Fields of Study

  • American Politics, Race and Politics, Public Policy

• About

  LaFleur Stephens is currently a visiting scholar in the Political Science Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests include American public opinion, campaigns and elections, and racial attitudes.  Her dissertation examines the different race-based appeals used by black and white candidates to attract electoral support from whites.  Specifically, she is interested in the effectiveness of racial appeals and racial imagery.  She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation's Time-Sharing in Experimental Social Sciences Grant, as well as a grant from the Center for the Study of Public Policy in Diverse Societies.  She is also the co-author of  "African Americans and the Presidential Nominating Process," published in William Mayer's The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2008.

• Education

  • University of Rochester, B.A. Political Science, 2002

• Awards

  • Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Debt Management Award 2009
  • Shapiro Malik Award 2007
  • Honorable Mention, 2006 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
  • Honorable Mention, 2006 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

• Grants

  • National Science Foundation, Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences, “Racialized Appeals by Black Candidates” 2011
  • Center for Public Policy in Diverse Societies Research Grant $6000 Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Research Grant
  • Gerald R. Ford Dissertation Fellowship 2010-2011, Tuition, stipend, research
  • Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Merit Fellowship, 2005-2010

• Presentations

  • National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Atlanta GA “Racial Appeals by Black Candidates” (March 2010)
  • Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago IL “The Evolution of the Discourse on the Achievement Gap” (April 2009)
  • Interdisciplinary Workshop on American Politics, University of Michigan, “Framing the Achievement Gap” (November 2008)

• Dissertation Title

  • The Effectiveness of Implicit and Explicit Racial Appeals in “Post-Racial” America

• Dissertation Chair

  • Vincent Hutchings

• Dissertation Committee

  • Nick Valentino, Hanes Walton, Nancy Burns, Richard Hall