UMBC Links  A-Z Index | myUMBC | Calendar | Computing | Directory | Maps

Tyson King-Meadows, Associate Professor

Office Information:
Department of Political Science
309 Public Policy

University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250

Email: tkingmea@umbc.edu
Phone: 410-455-2194
Fax: 410-455-1021

Education: PhD: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
MA: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
BA: North Carolina Central University

Dr. Tyson D. King-Meadows is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). He is also an affiliate of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR), an affiliate of the Department of Public Policy, and a Faculty Fellow of the Honors College. He received a B.A. in Political Science from North Carolina Central University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His primary research interests concern African American political behavior and attitudes, identity politics, race and representation, Congress, and elections. He is active in the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA). He currently serves as president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS). Dr. King-Meadows has also received a number of teaching, service, and research awards, including a fellowship to the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research at Harvard University, a Fulbright Scholar Award to Ghana, West Africa, and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for a residency at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. He also serves as an Alumni Ambassador of the Fulbright Scholar Program. For more, click here.

Dr. King-Meadows is particularly interested in exploring the impact of black political engagement, civil rights law, identity group politics, and racial representation on the black socioeconomic condition from the latter twentieth century to present day. For example, see the recently released book When the Letter Betrays the Spirit: Voting Rights Enforcement and African American Participation from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama(Lexington Books, 2011). This book draws from government data, legislative history, Supreme Court decisions, survey results, and the 2006 reauthorization debate to examine how executive and judicial discretion facilitates violations of the Voting Rights Act. While challenging the executive-centered model of leadership on voting rights, this book puts forth a Congress-centered leadership model that would satisfy the goals of the black civil rights movement and give fuller support to the Fifteenth Amendment. Dr. King-Meadows is also co-author with Thomas F. Schaller of Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-first Century (State University of New York Press, 2006). His next book (forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press) examines contemporary racial identity politics and the senatorial and gubernatorial candidacies of black federal representatives.

Spring 2011 Courses:
The Congress (POLI 324)
Political Parties and Elections (POLI 325)
Research Internship (POLI 403)

Fall 2011 Courses:
American Government and Politics (POLI 100)
Political Parties and Elections (POLI 325)
Research Internship (POLI 403)

Fall 2012 Courses:
African American Politics (POLI 427)
Young Voters and American Democracy (POLI 309)
American Government and Politics (POLI 100)

43rd Annual Meeting of NCOBPS (March 14 – 17, 2012): http://www.ncobps.org/

See the website for When the Letter Betrays the Spirit

Follow updates for the book on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/whentheletter