Allison Rank, Ph.D.

allison.rank@oswego.edu

SUNY Oswego

Phone: 3153123486

Address: 437 Mahar Hall, SUNY Oswego

City: Oswego, New York - 13126

Country: United States

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About Me:

I am an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego. I teach courses in American politics, American political history, and political communication. My research interests include the political history of youth, youth political organizing, campus civic engagement, and political science pedagogy. 

Research Interests

Political Participation

Elections, Election Administration, and Voting Behavior

Civic Engagement (youth)

Youth Politics

My Research:

My research focuses on the role of youth in American politics. First, my current book project  (in the manuscript stages) offers a new perspective on the role of youth in American politics by approaching youth not as a stage of development or fixed demographic but as a category leveraged by political elites in their effort to create good citizens and thus ensure social reproduction over the course of the twentieth century. I argue that moments of social and economic stress - including industrialization, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and (supposed) crime waves of the 1980s - spur elite fears of youth alientation, radicalism, criminality, and a strong desire to craft a citizenry that holds a certain set of values. Ultimately, the repeated, dedicated efforts of elites to incorporate young people into the state over the course of the twentieth century provide a new understanding of how the government actively workds to create citizens whiel also offering a vantage point from which to consider modern youth policies. Second, my current pedagogical research focuses on understanding both how to incorporate and the benefits of incorporating voter mobilization campaigns into a political science curriculum. In 2016, I directed a campus-wide voter mobilization program that served as both a three-credit practicum in political science and a credit-bearing internship site on campus. Voter mobilization drives represent an opportunity for students to research and assess their campus, execute grassroots campaign tactics, and take ownership over a project of significance. Centering voter mobilization campaigns within the academic center of the university recognizes the potential of such campaigns to build students' critical thinking and analytical skills. My work has appeared in PS: Political Science & Politics, Citizenship Studies, and the Journal of Political Science Education.