Laura Stoker
Associate Professor of Political Science
Phone: (510) 642-3396
Office Location: 778 Barrows
Office Hours: Tu & Wed 4:30-5:30 at Brewed Awakening Care on Euclid Ave
Summer 2009 Course: PS3 Intro to Research Methods,
PSN164A Political Psychology and Involvement
Professor Stoker received her Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the development and change of political beliefs, attitudes, and behavior, and employs data drawn from surveys and experiments. Specific topics include the moral basis of citizens' opinions on public policies, particularly as contrasted with group- and self-interested influences; sources of short- and long-run change in citizens' evaluations of political candidates and public policies; and interpersonal political influence in the family. Recent publications include "Interests and Ethics in Politics" (American Political Science Review), "Life-Cycle Transitions and Political Participation: The Case of Marriage" (American Political Science Review, with M. Kent Jennings) and "Understanding Whites' Resistance to Affirmative Action: The Role of Principled Commitments and Racial Prejudice" (in Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the United States, eds. Jon Hurwitz and Mark Peffley, Yale University Press). She is currently co-directing two projects. One focuses on how egalitarian commitments influence Americans' views on policies concerning race and gender. The second focuses on the persistence of political beliefs and attitudes over the life-cycle and their transmission across generations. Stoker is on the Board of Overseers of the American National Election Studies, on the Editorial Board of the American Political Science Review, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, and Political Research Quarterly, and a former fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1993-1994, 1997-1998).