Building Infrastructure to Enhance Diversity in Political Methodology

This article describes an effort to diversify the pool of undergraduates interested in pursuing graduate studies in political science by making quantitative social science more accessible to underrepresented minority (URM) students. We recognize the opportunity structures are radicalized and gendered (e.g. Beckwith 2015; Jackson 2019; Kenney 1996; Wilson 2007). Thus, we must challenge institutional barriers by engaging “in efforts that recognize the ways in which intersectional forms of oppression manifest in academic spaces” (Tormos-Aponte 2021, 2). Our program follows the blueprints of existing ones designed to increase opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students, including the APSA Ralph Bunche Summer Institute and the Visions in Methodology conference (Barnes and Beaulieu 2017). Such programs contribute to the diversity infrastructure (Sinclair-Chapman 2015) in political science by building networks of support and providing valuable training and institutional resources.