Fields of Interest:

Political Representation, Public Law, and Judicial Politics

Education: PhD, Emory University, 2020

Kirsten Widner is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Emory University (2020) and a JD from the University of San Diego (2007). In her law career, she represented children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and taught in the public policy and legislative advocacy clinics at Emory Law School. With her students and community partners, she successfully advocated for the passage of numerous improvements to Georgia’s laws in areas such as child abuse, human trafficking, and adoption.

Kirsten’s research focuses on how laws and policies that affect marginalized groups are made. She has a particular interest in the political representation of people without the right to vote—children, noncitizens, and people disenfranchised due to criminal convictions or mental incapacity. Her work has been published in political science journals and law reviews, including Political Research Quarterly, Polity, the Journal of Law and Courts, Interest Groups and Advocacy, the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law and Policy, the University of Cincinnati Law Review, and the San Diego Law Review. Her first book with Beth Reingold and Kerry L. Haynie, Race, Gender, and Representation: Toward a More Intersectional Approach (Oxford University Press 2020) won the Richard F. Fenno Prize for best book in legislative studies. Her second book, The Haves and Have-Nots in Supreme Court Representation and Participation, 2016 to 2021, with Anna Gunderson, was published last year in the Cambridge Elements in American Politics series

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