Political Scientist

Margaret Brower is a PhD student at the University of Chicago. She focuses on the public opinion and political behavior of marginalized subgroups in the U.S. population with specific attention to how intersectional, social identities complicate and can explain differences in these outcomes.

Currently, she developed and leads a study using experimental methods to better understand how policy frames and coalition organizing among women’s organizations can affect public opinion and mobilize populations differently according to intersectional identities of gender, race, ethnicity and class. 

Margaret has published book chapters and articles on political behavior, youth political development, and gendered public policy.

She holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Chicago, a Master of Arts in Higher Education and Public Policy from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Education from Colgate University.

Public Scholar

Margaret Brower has worked on numerous public projects over the course of her career. As a graduate student at the University of Michigan she worked for the National Forum for the Public Good engaging in participatory action research. This project involved conducting focus groups with community members of Detroit to better understand the needs of residents for education opportunities, workforce skills, and neighborhood improvements.

She also worked for the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tisch College where she helped develop a national database of national student voting rates, called the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement and lead a national large-scale qualitative project on student political learning and development. This research informed multiple public reports and documents to improve political educational opportunities for students.  

Most recently with GenForward at the University Chicago, she co-lead an urban qualitative study of Chicago with Cathy Cohen and David Knight. This project examined why and how place-based political conditions of the city determine disparaging political, social, and economic outcomes for young adults by race and ethnicity. A public report was developed and published. Margaret has participated in multiple media interviews and radio broadcasting shows discussing the findings of the report. 

Educator

Margaret takes very seriously her role as an educator. As a first-generation college student, she has learned first-hand how important educational spaces can be for young people and is personally invested in ensuring these places are supportive and encouraging for all students across social backgrounds. 

She has a scholarship background in college student political development. She has written multiple book chapters and articles on best practices, pedagogies, curriculum programming for student political learning and engagement in democracy. At the University of Michigan, she also worked on numerous projects developing better educational resources for marginalized students, especially for undocumented students.

She has taught courses with different student populations. She taught a course at the University of Boston, Massachusetts on community engagement and served as a teaching assistant for professors at the University of Chicago teaching Introduction to American Politics, Race and Politics, and African American Politics. She also served and serves as a graduate preceptor, developing her own methods curriculum sequence for undergraduate students pursuing a honor’s thesis and advising them individually on producing these thesis projects.