College of Humanities and Sciences

Alexandria Davis, Ph.D., is a social science researcher that specializes in political science, race and ethnicity, and political psychology. Her research interests include racial and ethnic politics, Black political behavior, social class, political psychology, intersectionality and voting. Her upcoming book project focuses on a new measure of racial group apathy and non-voting in the United States. She was born and raised in Inglewood, Calif., and is a double Bruin.

Q&A with Alexandria Davis

Where did you grow up? Can you tell us a little about your educational journey?

I grew up in Inglewood, Calif. I graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in political science and African American studies and got my Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

When did you first fall in love with your field of study? What made you decide to work in academia?

I first fell in love with my political science when I was about six or seven watching CNN daily with my great-grandmother. She made it her daily habit to stay politically informed and to get out to vote and instilled those values in me. I fell even more in love with political science when I was nine years old and I watched former President Barack Obama get elected. I was so interested in seeing someone who looked like me pursuing political office, and [seeing] the support among the Black community across the country, including my great-grandmother who thought she would never live to see a Black president. 

I decided to work in academia because I took courses with two Black women professors in political science and African American studies at UCLA. I thought their choice to study communities of color and underrepresented groups were inspiring and I wanted to be just like them. This inspiration led me to want to do research and I became a Ronald E. McNair Scholar that supported my research, and it also taught me the doors that a Ph.D. could open for me.

Can you explain the focus of your research?

The focus of my research exists at the nexus of racial and ethnic politics, political participation and political psychology. I am interested in how salient social and political identities inform political participation and political attitudes toward elected officials and policies. I center my research around two major goals: the first is to better understand how racialized apathy affects electoral and non-electoral participation of underrepresented groups. The second goal is to better understand the political implications of marginalized intersectional identities in the American political landscape.

Can you talk a little about your teaching philosophy? What do you most like about teaching?

My teaching philosophy centers on participatory learning to broaden and strengthen students’ theoretical and methodological toolkits. Participatory learning encourages students to be active participants in their learning experiences and moves away from thinking of education as just a hierarchical system. Instead of a hierarchy, I prefer to think of education as a symbiotic relationship between mentors and mentees where learning occurs in a feedback loop. I practice this by setting community guidelines with my students at the beginning of each term. Additionally, I make sure to incorporate individual and group-based activities that allow students to see that knowledge production not only comes from faculty but can come from themselves and their peers.

What attracted you to VCU? What are you most excited about in regards to VCU and Richmond?

I was attracted to VCU because of its commitment to real world learning and its location on the East Coast. VCU is filled with so many opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and the opportunity to apply what’s learned to civic engagement opportunities and more, and that is something I have always been passionate about. Also, I have never lived anywhere besides Los Angeles and I wanted to experience what it is like to live on the East Coast with good proximity to Washington, D.C.

Can you tell us either a quirky fact about yourself or some of your hobbies?

I am an avid reader (I read about 30 books a year) and I have a #Booktok page.