College of Arts and Sciences

The Department of Political Science and Public Affairs Hosts Former Seton Hall Professor, Heath Brown, As He Talks About His New Book "Immigrants and Electoral Politics"  

Heath Brown The Department of Political Science and Public Affairs will be hosting former Seton Hall professor, Heath Brown, as he discusses his new book, Immigrants and Electoral Politics: Nonprofit Organizing in a Time of Demographic Change.

This discussion will take place Wednesday, November 2nd from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. in the Beck Room in the Walsh Library.

Heath Brown is currently an assistant professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He has previously worked at the US Congressional Budget Office as a Research Fellow, the American Bus Association as a Policy Assistant, and at the Council of Graduate Schools as Research and Policy Director. In addition, Brown is Reviews Editor for Interest Groups & Advocacy and the host of the podcast, New Books in Political Science, which you can find here»

Here, he interviews new authors about their political science publications and research. He is also an expert contributor to The Hill, The Atlantic magazine, and American Prospect magazine.

Brown's research encompasses public policy, nonprofit organizations, and elections as he is particularly interested in education policy, criminal justice, gun policy, and politics in the nonprofit sector.

Immigrants and Electoral Politics explains both why nonprofit electoral participation has emerged in relation to new threats to immigrants and immigrant integration into United States society during a time of demographic change. The low tendency of immigrants across the U.S. to register and vote, has been seen to limit the political power of many of their communities. Knowing this, nonprofits have adopted multifaceted political strategies including registering new voters, holding candidate forums, phone banking to increase immigrant voter turnout, and advancing immigrant communities by providing exclusive social services.

"In Immigrants and Electoral Politics, Heath Brown addresses an important set of questions about the current state and future trajectory of U.S. politics in the midst of increasing racial and ethnic diversity. Brown's analysis of voting behavior among the newest segment of the American electorate is especially timely. This book captures one's attention not only for the importance of the questions at stake but because of the originality of Brown's perspective in considering in detail immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations and their role in electoral politics."—Jane Junn, University of Southern California, coauthor of Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and Their Political Identities

"Heath Brown explores the important political roles of immigrant-serving nonprofits, focusing in particular on their decisions about whether to participate in electoral politics. Immigrants and Electoral Politics illuminates both key opportunities for and challenges to immigrant political power at a time when immigrants constitute an important constituency even while many immigrant communities are increasingly under attack."—Dara Strolovitch, Princeton University, author of Affirmative Advocacy

"But Southern states haven't made it easier for these groups to become more active. In a forthcoming book, "Immigrants and Electoral Politics," author Heath Brown finds that many immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations don't register voters or get involved in electoral politics in part, Brown says, because of new state voter registration laws that create stringent regulations and penalties." - Allie Yee, Facing South

In addition to Immigrants and Electoral Politics, Brown has also published several books such as Pay-to-Play Politics, Tea Party Divided, and Lobbying the New President.