Todd Shaw

Todd Shaw has appointments both in USC's Department of Political Science and the African American Studies Program. He was appointed the College of Arts & Science Distinguished Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies in August of 2012. He currently is the Associate Director of African American Studies. He researches and teaches broadly in the areas of African American politics, urban politics and public policy, as well as citizen activism and social movements.

His current research agenda is to explore the political, sociological, and ideological ramifications of changes in the post-Civil Rights Movement African American community. Specifically he is very interested in how class, gender, age and other social factors create differing definitions of what constitutes African American group interests and how groups of African Americans and their allies have acted upon these perceived interests. Among other scholarly journals, Shaw has published in the Journal of Politics, the National Political Science Review, and the Annals of the American Academy as well as chapters in edited volumes and book reviews in journals.