Dr. Patricia Posey discusses her book project, where she considers the political participation of marginalized groups and the necessity to ensure the representation of their interests. She looks to fill the gap in the ways financial services such as pawnshops, check-cashing outlets, auto title loans, and payday loans (collectively known as the fringe economy) exacerbate the relationship among race, political participation, and political economy. Addressing the political behaviors of those touched by the fringe economy is necessary because these individuals compromise an often neglected voice in society: the overwhelmingly poor, disproportionately minority.

This event was organized in partnership with the Cornell Government Department’s PSAC series.

Speaker

Patricia Posey is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago as well as the Political Science Department’s junior faculty member for the Race and Capitalism Project, where she specializes in race and American political economy.

Her current book project examines the effects of different banking and loan institutions on political attitudes and political participation. She is particularly interested in the effects of check cashing institutions, payday loan companies, pawn shops, and the like (collectively known as the fringe economy) on the attitudes of poor, black, and brown communities toward the state. The manuscript is based on her award-winning dissertation project which was awarded the Urban Politics Section’s Byran Jackson Dissertation Research on Minority Politics Award and supported by the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences’ Teece Fellowship, and the Department of Political Science.

Dr. Posey’s research broadly examines the relationship between American political economy and race, with a focus on the links among capitalism, urban space, technology, and political behavior. She has a book chapter with Daniel Gillion on the effects of minority protest on government responsiveness that is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. Additionally, she has published with The Washington Post Monkey Cage and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics - Politics of Color. More about her research is available here.

Prior to joining the Political Science Department at the University of Chicago, Patricia Posey was a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specialized in American Politics. She has been recognized as a Fontaine Fellow, Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow,  American Political Science Association Ralph Bunche Scholar, and American Political Science Association Minority Fellow.

Patricia Posey received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and a double BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Florida in 2013.

For more information, visit Dr. Posey’s personal website.