Brawner Hall 102
Dr. Melissa R. Michelson is a nationally recognized expert on Latino politics, voter mobilization experiments, and LGBTQ rights. She is the award-winning author of six books, including Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns (2012) and, most recently, Transforming Prejudice: Identity, Fear, and Transgender Rights (2020). In her spare time, she knits and runs marathons.
Dr. Michelson is Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Menlo College. Her academic work is solidly based in activist scholarship. Whether the focus is on members of the Latino, LGBTQ, or other marginalized groups, she uses her research to motivate greater equality and justice for all. Dr. Michelson went to graduate school to become a teacher and delights in leading classroom discussions, but also to write books that might make a difference, inspired by her undergraduate professor at Columbia University, Dr. Charles V. Hamilton. She has since written six books and dozens of journal articles and book chapters and is a nationally recognized expert in Latinx voter mobilization and LGBTQ politics.
Dr. Michelson’s current projects include ongoing research on how best to motivate Latinx citizens to vote, how to reduce prejudice against members of the LGBTQ community and against people living with HIV/AIDS, how best to motivate members of hard-to-count populations to participate in the 2020 Census, how best to motivate poll workers on new and developing vote technology, and many other smaller projects. More than a quarter century after completing her PhD, she is still excited by new research ideas and eager to dive into new literatures to learn more.
Dr. Michelson frequently speaks at public events and to the media, including a Menlo TedX talk in 2019 and as the long-time election night analyst at Peninsula Television. She is a frequent source for news stories about Latinx politics, LGBTQ politics, and California politics, including national outlets like the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as international media. She enjoys speaking to students outside of the classroom, including as a guest speaker in political science classes and to student audiences at the high school and college levels interested in how to be allies to the LGBTQ community.
• Melissa R. Michelson and Brian F. Harrison. LGBTQ Life in America: Examining the Facts. Under contract; anticipated publication, 2021. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• Melissa R. Michelson and Brian F. Harrison. 2020. Transforming Prejudice: Fear, Identity, and Transgender Rights. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Michelson, Melissa R., J. Theodore Anagnoson, Gerald Bonetto, J. Vincent Buck, Jolly Emrey, James J Kelleher, Nadine Koch. Forthcoming, Feb. 2021. Governing California in the Twenty-First Century, 8th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company).
• Anagnoson, Theodore J., Gerald Bonetto, J. Vincent Buck, Jolly Emrey, James J. Kelleher, Nadine Koch, and Melissa R. Michelson. 2019. Governing California in the Twenty-First Century, 7th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company)
• Harrison, Brian F., and Melissa R. Michelson. 2017. Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Calfano, Brian R., Elizabeth A. Oldmixon, and Melissa R. Michelson. 2017. A Matter of Discretion: The Politics of Catholic Priests in the United States and Ireland. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Chávez Pringle, Maria, Jessica Lavariega Monforti, and Melissa R. Michelson. 2014. Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
• García Bedolla, Lisa, and Melissa R. Michelson. 2012. Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate Through Get-out-the-Vote Campaigns. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Recent Presentations/Event Appearances
• 2020. “Transforming Prejudice,” Occidental College, April 6.
• 2019. “The Latino Vote: Identity, Status, and Turnout.” Latino Leadership Alliance 10th Anniversary Forum at Stanford University, Aug. 3.
• 2019 US-Mexico Forum for Cooperation, Understanding, and Solidarity, “Mexican American Social Movements.” Stanford University, April 15.
• 2018 American Political Science Association annual meeting. “Opening Minds to Change on Transgender Rights” (with Logan S. Casey & Brian F. Harrison)
• 2018 American Political Science Association annual meeting. Panelist, Roundtable, “Improving Diversity in Political Methodology.”
• 2018: “Workshop: Survey Experiments,” University of New Mexico, May 17; UC Irvine, May 31.
• Annual Banquet Speaker for University of Florida’s Department of Political Science. “How to Get Out the Vote in 2018: Transforming the Electorate, Transforming Politics,” University of Florida, March 21.
• 2018. “Mobilizing the Latino Vote,” University of Arizona, Feb. 1; San Francisco State University, April 4.
• Distinguished Career Award, Latino Caucus of the Midwest Political Science Association.
• Dean’s Scholarship Award, Menlo College.
• American Political Science Association’s Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Award for Exemplary Mentoring of Graduate Latino/a Students in Political Science.
• Jane Mansbridge Award, for improving conditions for women in political science (with other board members of Women Also Know Stuff project).
• Best Paper Award, Midwest Political Science Association’s LGBT Caucus (with Brian F. Harrison).
• Visiting Scholar, Havens Center for the Study of Social Justice, University of Wisconsin, Madison, April 2015.
• American Political Science Association (APSA) 2013 Ralph Bunche Award
• APSA 2013 Best Book Award in the Field of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
