My Work
Publications
Davis, B. (2019). Are Majority Minority Districts Too Safe?: A look at the Alabama State
Legislature. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 1-19.
doi:10.1017/S1742058X1900002
Davis, B. R. (2018). Predation in State and Nation. Race and Justice, 1-21.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368718785229.
Davis, B (Forthcoming). Redistricting. In T. King-Meadow, K. Middlemass, & V. Sinclair-
Chapman (Eds.), African Americans in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia
of African Americans as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
Davis, B (Forthcoming). Stop and Frisk. In T. King-Meadow, K. Middlemass, & V. Sinclair-
Chapman (Eds.), African Americans in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia
of African Americans as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
Under Review
"Direct and Indirect Effects of Carceral Contact on Political Participation: Testing Mechanisms"
Despite extensive scholarship detailing the expansion of the carceral state, the subsequent increase in carceral contact, and the negative externalities of carceral contact, our understanding of the effects of carceral contact, as either simultaneous or path dependent, remains unknown. My contribution to the literature on the political consequences of the carceral state is a clearer understanding of the direct and indirect relationship between carceral contact and participation. This research moves the conversation from what is happening to how it is happening. I find that carceral contact has significant direct and indirect effects on political participation mediated through feelings of civic duty and governmental trust. Roughly twenty-three percent of the negative effect on political participation is an indirect effect of carceral contact on feelings of civic duty and governmental trust. My results strongly suggest that the causal arrow points in my hypothesized direction—carceral contact depresses levels of civic duty and governmental trust, which subsequently suppresses political participation.
"Feeling Politics: Well-Being and Participation"
In this paper, I argue that feelings of well-being are strongly associated with political participation and in part produced through interactions with institutions. Using panel analysis and structural equation modeling, I offer evidence that carceral contact has a strong direct effect and a strong indirect effect on political participation mitigated through measures of well-being. I find that twenty-three percent of the political suppression effect is an indirect effect of carceral contact mediated through measures of well-being. My results strongly suggest that the causal arrow goes in my hypothesized direction—carceral contact adversely affects feelings of well-being and thereby subsequent political participation. My results have important implications for the study of law and society, institutions, race and American politics, and political participation.
"Religiosity and Public Opinion: Faith, Race, and Immigration"
In this study I utilize the American National Election Studies 2012 (ANES) and employ two different statistical analysis methods to estimate the effects of religiosity on public opinion and attitudes. The ANES is a time series survey which includes a rich array of objective measures of public opinion, attitudes, and religiosity. The unique quality of the surveys allows for the estimation of the direct and indirect effects of religiosity on public opinion and attitudes mediated through observed measures of beliefs and ideology. I used several comprehensive measures of religiosity, capturing both attendance and devotion, allowing for a more robust examination of the impact religiosity has on public opinion and attitudes. Finally, I included standard independent variables such as education, employment, income, race, geographic location, and ideology. Previous studies have included various measures of religiosity and public opinion but have not utilized structural equation modeling to assess the direct and indirect effects of religiosity.
"The Politics of Racial Abjection"
Building on the theoretical frameworks of both Mills and Hooker I inject the racial polity and racialized solidarity into Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection to show how the lack of concern about the pain and suffering of blacks produces a race based abjection. I argue, such as with political solidarity, theorist have not sufficiently considered the effects of race on abjection. The central problematic of this paper is racial abjection—how race creates an inverted conceptualization of abjection and what this means for blacks. First I discuss the theory of abjection and its connection to women’s bodies and most significantly the dead body—the ultimate abjection. Secondly I discuss how akin to solidarity, when race is injected in to abjection the concept takes on new meaning. Essentially, black pain and suffering have become spectacles and the dead black body its climax. This is primarily the ability and desire of whites to inflict and bare whiteness to black suffering and pain and not express solidarity in neither an affective or normative manner. Next, I discuss the normative implication of racial abjection on the black body and the sexualization of the black body. Then I detail the effects of racial abjection on black masculinity and femininity. Lastly, I offer (dis)identification as a means of counter-conceptualizing back identity.
Working Papers
Poverty to Prison Pipeline: Gendered Pathways into the Carceral State
Sophistication, Inconsistency, and Symbolism: A Rational Approach to Ideology
Antigone: Autonomy and the State
Other Publications
Davis, B (2016) Globalizing the Agenda of #BlackLivesMatter. Agenda for International Development.
Davis, B. (2015) Graduate students hurt by the Affordable Care Act. The Hill, July 29, 2015.
Davis, B. (2014) Ferguson the Latest Front in the State’s War on Black Community. PanAm Post
August 22, 2004.
Davis, B. (2019). Are Majority Minority Districts Too Safe?: A look at the Alabama State
Legislature. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 1-19.
doi:10.1017/S1742058X1900002
Davis, B. R. (2018). Predation in State and Nation. Race and Justice, 1-21.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368718785229.
Davis, B (Forthcoming). Redistricting. In T. King-Meadow, K. Middlemass, & V. Sinclair-
Chapman (Eds.), African Americans in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia
of African Americans as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
Davis, B (Forthcoming). Stop and Frisk. In T. King-Meadow, K. Middlemass, & V. Sinclair-
Chapman (Eds.), African Americans in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia
of African Americans as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
Under Review
"Direct and Indirect Effects of Carceral Contact on Political Participation: Testing Mechanisms"
Despite extensive scholarship detailing the expansion of the carceral state, the subsequent increase in carceral contact, and the negative externalities of carceral contact, our understanding of the effects of carceral contact, as either simultaneous or path dependent, remains unknown. My contribution to the literature on the political consequences of the carceral state is a clearer understanding of the direct and indirect relationship between carceral contact and participation. This research moves the conversation from what is happening to how it is happening. I find that carceral contact has significant direct and indirect effects on political participation mediated through feelings of civic duty and governmental trust. Roughly twenty-three percent of the negative effect on political participation is an indirect effect of carceral contact on feelings of civic duty and governmental trust. My results strongly suggest that the causal arrow points in my hypothesized direction—carceral contact depresses levels of civic duty and governmental trust, which subsequently suppresses political participation.
"Feeling Politics: Well-Being and Participation"
In this paper, I argue that feelings of well-being are strongly associated with political participation and in part produced through interactions with institutions. Using panel analysis and structural equation modeling, I offer evidence that carceral contact has a strong direct effect and a strong indirect effect on political participation mitigated through measures of well-being. I find that twenty-three percent of the political suppression effect is an indirect effect of carceral contact mediated through measures of well-being. My results strongly suggest that the causal arrow goes in my hypothesized direction—carceral contact adversely affects feelings of well-being and thereby subsequent political participation. My results have important implications for the study of law and society, institutions, race and American politics, and political participation.
"Religiosity and Public Opinion: Faith, Race, and Immigration"
In this study I utilize the American National Election Studies 2012 (ANES) and employ two different statistical analysis methods to estimate the effects of religiosity on public opinion and attitudes. The ANES is a time series survey which includes a rich array of objective measures of public opinion, attitudes, and religiosity. The unique quality of the surveys allows for the estimation of the direct and indirect effects of religiosity on public opinion and attitudes mediated through observed measures of beliefs and ideology. I used several comprehensive measures of religiosity, capturing both attendance and devotion, allowing for a more robust examination of the impact religiosity has on public opinion and attitudes. Finally, I included standard independent variables such as education, employment, income, race, geographic location, and ideology. Previous studies have included various measures of religiosity and public opinion but have not utilized structural equation modeling to assess the direct and indirect effects of religiosity.
"The Politics of Racial Abjection"
Building on the theoretical frameworks of both Mills and Hooker I inject the racial polity and racialized solidarity into Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection to show how the lack of concern about the pain and suffering of blacks produces a race based abjection. I argue, such as with political solidarity, theorist have not sufficiently considered the effects of race on abjection. The central problematic of this paper is racial abjection—how race creates an inverted conceptualization of abjection and what this means for blacks. First I discuss the theory of abjection and its connection to women’s bodies and most significantly the dead body—the ultimate abjection. Secondly I discuss how akin to solidarity, when race is injected in to abjection the concept takes on new meaning. Essentially, black pain and suffering have become spectacles and the dead black body its climax. This is primarily the ability and desire of whites to inflict and bare whiteness to black suffering and pain and not express solidarity in neither an affective or normative manner. Next, I discuss the normative implication of racial abjection on the black body and the sexualization of the black body. Then I detail the effects of racial abjection on black masculinity and femininity. Lastly, I offer (dis)identification as a means of counter-conceptualizing back identity.
Working Papers
Poverty to Prison Pipeline: Gendered Pathways into the Carceral State
Sophistication, Inconsistency, and Symbolism: A Rational Approach to Ideology
Antigone: Autonomy and the State
Other Publications
Davis, B (2016) Globalizing the Agenda of #BlackLivesMatter. Agenda for International Development.
Davis, B. (2015) Graduate students hurt by the Affordable Care Act. The Hill, July 29, 2015.
Davis, B. (2014) Ferguson the Latest Front in the State’s War on Black Community. PanAm Post
August 22, 2004.
