We are a research team from Rutgers University, Department of Political Science, headed by Prof. Cynthia R. Daniels.
Prof. Cynthia R. Daniels is Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies the former Chair of Political Science (2009-2012) at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. She has published widely in the fields of reproductive politics and law, including works on abortion, bioethics, new reproductive technologies, male reproductive health and the criminalization of pregnancy. Her books include Exposing Men: The Science and Politics of Male Reproduction (Oxford University Press, 2006) and her most recent articles include “Comment: Developmental biology: Don’t blame the mothers,” Nature, co-authored with S. Richardson J. Golden, R. Kukla, C. Kuzawa, and J.W. Rich-Edwards, 2014 and “Transforming a Department; Transforming a Discipline,” Politics and Gender 2014. She is the recipient of many awards, including Rutgers University’s ‘Faculty Diversity Award’ (2012) for her work in addressing racial and gender disparities in academia.
Janna Ferguson is a doctoral candidate in political science at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is currently completing her dissertation, International Institutions and the Making of Remittances: Gendered Inclusions and Exclusions. Her most recent publication, titled ‘Transnational Localities: Federalism and the Gendered Politics of Citizenship in Central Mexico’ appeared in Federalism, Feminism and Multilevel Governance, edited by Melissa Haussman, Marian Sawer and Jill Vickers (Ashgate Press, 2010). Ms. Ferguson’s areas of expertise include international political economy, feminist institutional analysis, immigration and citizenship, and both quantitative and qualitative analytical approaches (with a specialization in large-scale qualitative content analysis). Her most notable academic awards include the Rutgers University Presidential Fellowship and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship.
Grace Howard is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Rutgers University, focusing on Women & Politics, Public Law, and Political Theory. Her areas of expertise include reproductive politics, race, gender, and class theory, and the politics of criminal justice. She is a Graduate Assistant with the Center for Race and Ethnicity, and her article “The Limits of Pure White: Raced Reproduction in the ‘Methamphetamine Crisis’” is published in the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, Vol. 35, Issue 3 (2015). Ms. Howard is the recipient of an Excellence Fellowship from Rutgers University, and was awarded the Stanley H. and Claire A. Friedelbaum Graduate Student Dissertation Fund Award. Her dissertation focuses on pregnancy exceptionalism in the law, if, and how the law matters in criminalized pregnancy, and an intersectional analysis of the moral panic surrounding pregnancy and substance use.
Amanda Roberti is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Her areas of expertise include women and politics, American politics, public policy, reproductive rights, state politics, and public law. Ms. Roberti is the Coordinator of the Douglass Residential College Public Leadership Education Network (Douglass PLEN). She is currently completing her dissertation entitled “‘Women Deserve Better:’ Issue Framing of Abortion Regulations in the States.” This work focuses on the framing of abortion regulations in the states; specifically, the use of “pro-woman” rhetoric by policymakers in their justification of antiabortion policies. Notable awards include the Rutgers Master’s Scholarship Award.
This work would not have been possible without the support of our team of undergraduate research assistants. We are indebted to Rachana Kelshikar, Amrutha Ramaswamy, and Antoinette Gingerelli for their hard work, diligence, and ongoing enthusiasm for this project.