Description:

Please join the Comparative Politics Workshop as they host Erica Simmons, associate professor of Political Science and International Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Session title and abstract forthcoming. 

Erica Simmons is Professor of Political Science and International Studies and holds the Department of Political Science Booth Fowler Professorship. In 2023 she was awarded a Romnes Faculty Fellowship by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was also recognized by the American Political Science Association with the David Collier Mid-Career Award for her contributions to qualitative methods. Simmons also holds a courtesy appointment with the Department of Sociology and is the Faculty Director of the International Studies Major.

Simmons’ research and teaching are motivated by an interest in contentious politics, particularly in Latin America. Simmons received an AB from Harvard College (1999) and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (2012). Her current work explores the intersection of market reforms and political resistance in the region and her dissertation on the topic was awarded the Latin American Studies Association/Oxfam America 2013 Martin Diskin award. She is the author of Meaningful Resistance: Market Reforms and the Roots of Social Protest in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2016) which was awarded the 2017 Charles Tilly award for distinguished contribution to scholarship on collective behavior and social movements. Simmons is currently working on two book projects, one on target response to social mobilization and another on the intersection of resource extraction, redistribution, and indigenous politics in Latin America. Her work on contentious politics has appeared in World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and Theory and Society, among others.