Kristi Andersen

Kristi Andersen grew up in Omaha, Nebraska; graduated from Smith College; and received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She taught at Ohio State University before joining the Maxwell School in 1984. She served as Chair of the Political Science Department from 1996-2001, and as Graduate Studies Director and Undergraduate Director at various times. Prof. Andersen is a recipient of Syracuse University’s highest teaching award, the Laura J. and R. Douglas Meredith Professorship of Teaching Excellence. Her books include New Immigrant Communities: Finding a Place in Local Politics; After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics Before the New Deal; and The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-1936. Her research has also produced articles on such topics as the gender gap; voting for male and female candidates; the effects of entering the work force on women’s political participation; the prospects for electing more women to Congress; and the political incorporation of immigrants. Kristi Andersen served on the Cazenovia Town Board from 2005 through 2021. And since 2002, she has been a member of the panel on WCNY-TV’s popular weekly public events show, “The Ivory Tower.”

Books

New Immigrant Communities: Finding a Place in Local Politics . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010.

After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics Before the New Deal . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-1936 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Articles and Book Chapters

"Constructing a New Majority: The Depression, the New Deal, and the Democrats." In Marjorie Randon Hershey (ed.), Guide to U.S. Political Parties. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2014. 

"The Importance of Women in the 2012 U.S. Elections" , e-International Relations, January 10, 2013 

"Parties, Organizations, and the Political Incorporation of Immigrants in Six Cities," in Civic Hopes and Political Realities: Immigrants, Community Organizations and Political Engagement edited by S. Karthick Ramakrishnan and Irene Bloemraad. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008 (pp. 77-106).
 
"In Whose Interest? Political Parties, Context, and the Incorporation of Immigrants," in New Race Politics: Understanding Minority and Immigrant Politics, edited by Jane Junn and Kerry Haynie. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 (pp. 17-38). 
 
"What I Learned (and Re-Learned) When I Ran for Local Office." PS: Political Science and Politics July 2007, pp. 507-510.