We Are Black History in the Making: Alum Andra Gillespie

ANDRA GILLESPIE

Political Analyst & Expert

Assistant Professor, Political Science

Emory University

Andra Gillespie is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Emory University.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Government & Foreign Affairs and African American Studies from the University of Virginia. She went on to earn a Master of Arts in African American Studies and a Master of Philosophy in Political Science from Yale University, where she also earned her doctorate in 2005. Before joining the faculty at Emory, she worked as an analyst for Democratic pollster Mark Mellman.

Gillespie’s teaching portfolio includes numerous classes on race and politics in the United States. She teaches the undergraduate survey course in African American politics, as well as a specialized course called “New Black Political Leadership.” She has also taught courses in political participation, experimental methods, and race and elections.

Gillespie’s current research focuses on the political leadership of the post-civil rights generation. She is the editor of and a contributor to Whose Black Politics? Cases in Post-Racial Black Leadership (Routledge, 2010). This book features case studies of prominent black elected officials born after 1960 to shed light on whether the advent of a new generation of black political leadership will actually revolutionize our understanding of African American politics. In late 2011, NYU Press will publish her book manuscript on municipal politics in Newark, New Jersey, tentatively titled Newark and the Clash of Two Black Americas: Race, Class and the Breakdown of Linked Fate, 2002-2010. This book uses a case study of Newark politics and the political ascent of one young black leader, Mayor Cory Booker, to challenge students of black politics to revise their understanding of the connection between racial solidarity, vote choice, and policy preferences. Due to her academic training and personal faith, Gillespie also maintains secondary academic interests in political participation, inter-minority group competition, and evangelical politics in the United States.

For her efforts, Gillespie has received numerous honors.  She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  Before earning her doctorate, she won American Political Science Association Minority Fellowship (funding declined) and the prestigious National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship.  She was honored by the Urban Section of the American Political Science Association as a 2009 Norton Long Fellow.  She was also a 2009-2010 Ford Foundation Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University.

In addition to her academic work, Gillespie maintains an active public profile, providing regular commentary.  She has appeared on Atlanta’s local ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, and PBS affiliates, as well as CNN, NPR and FamilyNet.  Her editorials have been featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, and Politico.  In addition, she is a contributor to Politico.com’s Arena.