Political Science Department Friday ForumSeptember 25, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

Dr. Kathryn Pearson, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, will present her research on representation in Congress. Her talk is titled, "Speaking For the Underrepresented: The Gender Dynamics of Floor Speeches in the House of Representatives." Free pizza and beverages.

Kathryn Pearson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. She specializes in American politics; her research focuses on the United States Congress, women and politics, congressional elections, political parties, and public opinion and has recently appeared in Perspectives on Politics and TheJournal of Politics. She is currently researching women's electoral success in congressional primaries, general elections, and Minnesota legislative elections. She is also working on a book manuscript, "Party Discipline in the Contemporary Congress, ebased on her dissertation, which won the APSA Legislative Studies Section's Carl Albert Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the area of legislative studies. In 2002-2003, Pearson was a Research Fellow at The Brookings Institution, and from 1993 to 1998 she worked on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Assistant for two congresswomen.