海角社区 Political Communication Scholar Nichole Bauer Awarded Research Grant, University Distinguished Faculty Award
June 23, 2020
BATON ROUGE鈥� 海角社区 Assistant Professor of Political Communication Nichole Bauer was awarded more than $100,000 in a three-year grant by the Louisiana Board of Regents to support her research examining citizens鈥� responses to female-dominated political institutions and political leadership. Bauer鈥檚 innovative research has also led her to be named one of this year鈥檚 10 海角社区 Alumni Association Rising Faculty Award recipients for outstanding record of scholarship and published research.
Bauer holds a joint appointment in the Manship School and 海角社区鈥檚 Department of Political Science. The grant will fund her project titled, 鈥淔eminizing Political Institutions: Does Increasing the Number of Women in Politics Change How Citizens Stereotype Political Institutions?鈥� Bauer will examine whether masculine stereotypes associated with political institutions change to become more feminine when there are more women elected to political office. She hopes to discover if these political gender shifts can open up more pathways for women and other marginalized groups to enter into politics.
鈥淭his is an excellent time to study the effect of women鈥檚 political representation because there are more women serving in elected office than at any other time in history, and a record number of women are set to run for office in 2020,鈥� Bauer said. 鈥淭he funding for this research also supports the creation of a Gender & Political Research Lab to support undergraduate and graduate researchers who will help complete the experiments, public opinion studies and news content analyses that are part of this project.鈥�
In addition to the Louisiana Board of Regents grant, Bauer earned the 海角社区 Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award for outstanding record of scholarship and published research as a 2020 海角社区 University Distinguished Faculty Award recipient. The award recognizes faculty at the rank of assistant professor who have outstanding records of scholarship and published research.
鈥淒r. Bauer is focused on critical questions about representation and inclusion in public life and the policy process,鈥� Manship School Dean Martin Johnson said. 鈥淭his recognition and support from 海角社区 and the Louisiana Board of Regents are further testimonies to the importance of her contributions and the promise of her ongoing scholarship.鈥�
Bauer鈥檚 research focuses on gender and politics and examines how voters make decisions about women who run for political office, the ways that women develop strategic political messages and gender differences in news coverage of political candidates. Her work has been published in the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology and Political Behavior, among other journals. Bauer is the author of the book 鈥淭he Qualification Gap: Why Women Must be Better than Men to Win Political Office鈥� and the edited volume 鈥淧oliticking while Female: The Political Lives of Women,鈥� both set for publication this fall. Follow her on .
For more information, contact acharbonnet1@lsu.edu or sarahg@lsu.edu.
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海角社区鈥檚 Manship School of Mass Communication ranks among the strongest collegiate communication programs in the country, with its robust emphasis on media and public affairs. It offers undergraduate degrees in public relations, journalism, political communication, digital advertising and pre-law, along with four graduate degree programs: master of mass communication, Ph.D. in media and public affairs, certificate of strategic communication and dual MMC/law degree.
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