I am currently on the job market
Isabel Williams, Ph.D. Candidate
isabelwilliams@email.arizona.edu
Graduate Student
The University of Arizona
About Me:
I am a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona School of Government & Public Policy. I use surveys and experiments to understand public opinion and political attitudes, specifically related to the topics of identity, immigration, and refugee policy. My dissertation addresses how security framing and stereotypes of refugees impact support for restrictive refugee policies and employs unique samples from American partisans, Muslim Americans, and resettled refugees. Beyond research and teaching, I am a nerd about travel, the great outdoors, plants and animals, and art of all kinds.
Research Interests
Immigration & Citizenship
Political Psychology
Immigration Policy
Immigration
American Politics
Public Opinion
Minority Rights
Political Communication
Race, Ethnicity and Politics
Political Sociology
Countries of Interest
United States
United Kingdom
Canada
My Research:
I study topics in American Politics and Political Psychology, including public opinion and minority public opinion, political psychology, immigration and refugee issues, and political communication. My research agenda addresses how the securitization and racialization of immigration policy in the United States influences attitudes toward immigration policy among minority populations and among the American public more broadly. My dissertation focuses on elite framing of contemporary refugee policy, particularly as it relates to stereotypes of refugees. In my work, I design and administer experiments to test the causal impacts of immigration rhetoric on distinct populations: American partisans, American Muslims and Christians, and resettled former refugees. This involved coding immigration rhetoric among political elites, recruiting samples of hard-to-reach populations including American Muslim and refugee participants, and analyzing both survey and experimental data. Overall, my work finds broad support for restrictive refugee policies across sub-populations despite diametrically opposed stereotypes of refugees by opinion leaders. I have several related collaborative projects regarding immigration and refugee policies and public and elite attitudes and behavior inlcuding a published paper (with Lisa Sanchez): Sanchez, L. M., & Williams, I. (2020). Extending a Hand in Perilous Times: Beneficial Immigration Policy in the Fifty States, 2005–2012. Social Science Quarterly, 101(6), 2257-2271.
Publications:
Journal Articles:
Abstract: Objective The passage of Arizona SB 1070 in 2010 focused national attention on punitive, state-level immigration legislation. Largely ignored is the increasing number of beneficial, state-level policies passed during the same period. We seek to understand whether beneficial immigration policy making amounts to reversing the factors underlying punitive immigration policy making, as is implied by current literature. Methods We utilize data from the National Conference of State Legislatures from 2005 to 2012 to uncover the puzzling enactment of beneficial state immigration laws during a period of high anti-immigrant sentiment and budgetary declines in the 50 states. Results Beneficial immigration policy making is not a reversal of the process that underlines punitive immigration policy making and is particularly responsive to the need generated by immigrant population size, regardless of the documentation status of the beneficiary. Conclusion The passage of beneficial immigration policies requires further analysis, as it is not as simple as reversing the process that produces punitive immigration policies.
Media Appearances:
Newspaper Quotes:
This article discusses AZ SCR1044, a proposition which would reverse a previous state law and allow AZ high school graduates -regardless of immigration status- to receive in-state tuition. This will go to voters to decide by referendum next year. When she spoke to Nate Brown at AZ Capital Times, University of Arizona PhD Candidate Isabel Williams argued that national polling shows broad support for protections to undocumented youth and representatives may be showing good faith to Latino voters and mixed-status families with this policy and that due to demographic changes and activism, Arizona's political landscape is much changed from 15 years ago.