Linda Mancillas, Ph.D.
lmancill@ggc.edu
Georgia Gwinnett College
About Me:
Dr. Linda Mancillas is an assistant professor of political science in the School of Liberal Arts at Georgia Gwinnett College. She teaches Introduction to American Government, Honors American Government, American Judicial Process, and Women & Politics courses. In 2015, Mancillas was appointed chair of the American Political Science Association Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession. She is a member of the GGC Faculty Senate and the GGC Honor’s Council. She served as faculty advisor to the GGC Democrats and to the Grizzly New Network.In January 2018, Mancillas authored “Presidents and Mass Incarceration: Choices at the Top, Repercussions at the Bottom.” In 2015, her and co-author Dr. Peter Brusoe’s article, “Born Digital: Using Technology in the Political Science Classroom,” was published in the Journal of Political Science Education. In 2015, Mancillas was nominated by her students for the GGC Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award and the GGC Outstanding Faculty Student Engagement Award. In 2011, Mancillas was awarded the American Political Science Association's Latino/a Caucus’ Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Mentoring Award for her dedication to student achievement. From 2004 to 2011, she taught classes at American University in Washington, D.C. including U.S. Politics, Latina/o Politics, and Women, Politics and Power.Mancillas was a 2010 Women’s Research and Education Institute Congressional Fellow (WREI) working on education policy issues in the Washington, D.C. office of Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA3rd). As a doctoral student at American University, Mancillas received the campus-wide 2008 Alice Paul Award and the 2005 Women & Politics Institute’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award.Linda Mancillas holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in political science and in women’s studies. She was awarded the UAB Department of Government and Public Service Outstanding Undergraduate Award, the Outstanding Woman UAB Student Award, the Mary Wollstonecraft Prize and the UAB Women’s Studies Award of Excellence for her scholarship.EducationDoctorate – political science – American UniversityMaster's – political science – American UniversityGraduate Certificate - women, policy, and political leadership – American UniversityBachelor's – political science – University of Alabama at BirminghamBachelor's – women's studies – University of Alabama in BirminghamAcademic InterestsAmerican governmentWomen and politicsJudicial politicsLatina/o politicsClassroom technologyPublicationsPresidents and Mass Incarceration: Choices at the Top, Repercussions at the Bottom. Jan 2018. Praeger Publishers Inc.(Forthcoming 2018) “Latina Leadership in the South.” Latinos in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Latinos as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders.“Born Digital: Using Technology in the Political Science Classroom,” Journal of Political Science Education.“Women as Leaders in the Latina/o Movement,” in Karen O’Connor, ed. Gender and Women’s Leadership: A Reference Handbook (2011).“Where Have the Interest Groups Gone? An Analysis of Interest Group Participation in Presidential Nominations to the Supreme Court of the States United,” Co-authored with Karen O’Connor and Alixandra B. Yanus) in Allan J. Cigler and Burdett A. Loomis, eds. 7th ed, Interest Group Politics (2007).“Breast-feeding: Nurture or Nature.” Revisions: Journal of the Women’s Studies Program. Michigan State University, XII (Spring 2000): 9-12.DistinctionsChair, APSA Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession2011 American Political Science Association's Latino/a Caucus' Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Mentoring Award2008 Alice Paul Award, AU2005 Women & Politics Institute’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award, AUProfessional AffiliationsAmerican Political Science AssociationSouthern Political Science Association
Research Interests
Crime Politics
Gender and Politics
American Presidency And Executive Politics
Publications:
Journal Articles:
U.S. higher education institutions spend a large amount of time, money, and energy on technology. Educators face a student population that has never been without the Internet—they are “Born Digital.” Students expect that faculty and universities utilize more technology. Higher education is faced with the question whether technology provides students with the experience they need to succeed or whether it hinders development of valuable skills that are achieved through traditional classroom instruction. We must be sensitive to what pedagogical approaches are helping students to gain technology skills that will aid them to engage in civic and political life. Consequently, few studies have shown a connection between increasing use of technology and improved student performance. Does academic performance improve with increased use of technology? This is the question our study attempts to answer. Our experimental design involves a pretest–posttest experiment examining student knowledge of political topics as well as their use of news media and products in introductory American Government courses. Students experienced different levels of exposure to technology to determine any differences in learning outcomes. Two important themes were explored: (1) How information technology promotes and enhances student learning and (2) how qualitative and quantitative research methods can be used to investigate the online learning experience.
Books Written:
Taking a new and innovative approach to the subject, this book looks at how U.S. presidents and their administrations' policies from the late 1960s to 2017 have led to rampant over-imprisonment and a public policy catastrophe in the United States.. Mandatory minimum sentencing; "three-strikes-and-you're-out" legislation; harsher sentences and less parole and probation. The result of draconian criminal justice policies in the last six decades is that the United States is the largest incarcerator in the world, surpassing Russia and China, with significant overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos in U.S. prisons, especially for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses. Presidents and Mass Incarceration: Choices at the Top, Repercussions at the Bottom shows how American presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Donald J. Trump have operated as significant political criminal justice entrepreneurs and how the leadership choices made at the top by these chief executives continue to have severe repercussions for the citizens at the lowest levels of our communities. Author Linda K. Mancillas references State of the Union Addresses, presidential initiatives, laws passed by Congress, Supreme Court decisions, and public opinion on high-profile crime events to assemble a cohesive framework of data that supports each president's impact on the incarceration explosion. Readers will come away with a greater appreciation for the complexity and magnitude of the political, economic, and societal issue of over-imprisonment that both the federal and state governments are attempting to address
Book Chapters:
Interest Group Politics presents a broad spectrum of scholarship on interest groups past and present. In a time of partisan parity, when control of Congress is always within reach of the minority party at the next election, interest groups have every incentive to keep the pressure on. And they do. But the imbalance of influence that tilts toward moneyed interests is one of the cornerstones of the political system. What does this mean for equal representation? In nineteen chapters, noted political scientists explore the role of money, technology, grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy advertising, and much more in interest group influence. Students will learn how the National Rifle Association has become one of the most effective lobbying groups in America, what opportunities the openness of the American political process has offered ethnic groups both within and outside the United States, how the role of interest groups in elections has changed (including 527's), what effect religious organizations had in the 2004 elections, and how interest groups affect Supreme Court nominations