Lauren D. Davenport

Lauren Davenport is Associate Professor of Political Science at Stanford. Her research focuses on American political behavior, public opinion, and race and ethnicity. She has published in journals including the American Political Science Review, the American Sociological Review, and Public Opinion Quarterly. Her work has been featured in national media outlets, including CNN, Time, MSNBC News, and National Public Radio. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Book: Politics Beyond Black and White: Biracial Identity and Attitudes in America

The U.S. is transforming into a multiracial society: today one-in-six new marriages are interracial and the multiple-race population is the fastest-growing youth group in the country. In Politics Beyond Black and White, Lauren Davenport examines the ascendance of multiracial identities and their implications for American society and the political landscape. Amassing unprecedented new data—including millions of survey responses and dozens of in-depth interviews—this book systematically investigates how race is constructed and how racial identities influence political behavior.

Findings reveal that biracials' identities are the product of family, interpersonal interactions, environment, and, most compellingly, gender stereotypes and social class. These identities, in turn, shape attitudes across a range of political issues, from affirmative action to same-sex marriage, and multiracial identifiers are shown to be culturally and politically progressive. But the book also reveals lingering prejudices against race-mixing, and that intermarriage and identification are highly correlated with economic prosperity. Overall findings suggest that multiracialism is poised to dismantle some racial boundaries, while reinforcing others.