Ángel Saavedra Cisneros: Research Summary
Overview
Ángel Saavedra Cisneros works on political behavior and racial and ethnic politics. He teaches courses on political behavior, attitudes, and psychology, with a particular area of interest in the politics of identity, especially concerning race and ethnicity.
His 2017 book, Latino Identity and Political Attitudes: Why Are Latinos Not Republican, won the American Political Science Association’s Racial and Ethnic Politics Section Best Book Award for Race and Political Behavior. He argues that people have multiple identities and that these identities coexist and are complementary rather than in conflict.
Current Work
Saavedra Cisneros's current research involves exploring identity complexity, the development of political identities in multicultural settings, understanding the forces that shape the Latinx vote, and immigration attitudes across the Americas.
His working projects involve understanding how messages and candidates impact attitudes and turnout among minority groups in America. Another project explores how multiple social identities are negotiated by individuals and how this impacts their political attitudes. Here Saavedra is particularly interested in understanding why many Latino and Black voters departed from the tradition of voting Democratic during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
An extension of his book involves measuring pan-ethnic and national identity among racial groups in the United States and exploring how socialization, assimilation, and racialization processes shape political views.
Student Opportunities
Saavedra Cisneros enjoys working with students and seeks opportunities to mentor students through his research projects and a graduate-style identities lab. His lab will restart in Spring 2023 and is open to students who want to join for research experience, independent study, or just having fun while thinking about empirical political science and designing experimental tests of political theories. Read more about the lab, suggested readings, and proposed meeting times for the upcoming semester.