Welcome! I’m Christine Marie Slaughter, Ph.D. and I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Boston University, where I hold the Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship. Before Boston, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, jointly appointed to the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics in the School of Public and International Affairs, and a UC Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. I earned my Ph.D. in political science with a concentration in Race and Ethnic Politics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

My book project examines how experiences of persistent economic inequality intersect with Black Americans’ racial identity, thus shaping their political psychology, behavior, and interactions with political institutions. My book project, “Resilience to Adversity: How Black Voters Are Mobilized to Counter Suppression,” asks: How do Black Americans withstand political obstacles to protest, vote, and organize? I answer this question by demonstrating that Black Americans use racial resilience, a novel psychological resource, to cope with and engage in costly political behaviors strategically. Through observational surveys, interviews, and a survey experiment, I show that Black voters are mobilized by racial resilience to engage in high-cost political behaviors that counter suppressive tactics.  

My research has been published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, Politics & Gender, PS: Politics and Political Science, PHILLIS: The Journal for Research on African American Women (PHILLIS), and the Oxford Handbook of Political Participation. I have also written articles for the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage Blog, and its predecessor Good Authority, and my research has been quoted in USA Today, and Capital B News. It is pivotal that scholars engage with the local press and community, check out my public engagement here.

I am a graduate of Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia, where I was a UNCF/Mellon Mays Fellow.

I am listed as expert on Women Also Know Stuff and Black Media Expert Directory. Other than my research page, you can follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Scholar and Twitter, which are linked below.