Christopher Clark is the department of undergraduate studies director and associate professor. He earned his B.A. from Saint Louis University (2005) and his M.A. (2006) and PhD (2010) from the University of Iowa. His research interests include race and electoral representation in the United States and state politics and policy. Most of his research focuses on minority representation in the U.S., with a particular interest in state politics. He has a book manuscript, Gaining Voice: The Causes and Consequences of Black Representation in the American States (Oxford University Press, 2019). In the first part of the book, he analyzes the factors associated with Black candidates who are elected to the state legislature and when Black state legislative caucuses are created. In the second part of the book, he considers how Black legislators influence policy outcomes beneficial to Black people, Black political involvement and Black political attitudes.
In addition, he has co-authored work that examines the creation of women’s state legislative caucuses, citizen demand for descriptive representation, and how descriptive representation influences the citizen-legislator relationship. Clark, along with Eric Hansen (Loyola University of Chicago), has compiled the Descriptive Representation in State Legislatures (DRSL) dataset. The DRSL dataset currently has information on legislative leadership in 30 states from 2003 to 2014, and it measures the number of blacks, Latinos, women, and blue-collar workers serving in these positions of power. Using DRSL, Clark and Hansen show that racial and ethnic diversity in leadership is partially explained by whether leaders are selected by peers.