Jess Underwood
Research Interests
Although my PhD research is focused on the USA, I am more broadly interested in everyday political though, economic ideas and racism, including:
- Economic ideas in everyday life
- Protest and popular political action
- Exploring ongoing impacts of colonialism and slavery, particularly colour-blind racism
- Methods for accessing 'ordinary' political belief (rhetorical analysis, historiography, qualitative interviews, and ethnography)
Current project
In November 2024, I completed my PhD thesis entitled: 'Contesting "the economy": a rhetorical political analysis of anti-lockdown and Black Lives Matter ideological communities.' In my thesis, I found that 'the economy' is a rhetorical device that speaks more intuitively to those aligned with white identity politics and creates obstacles for those advocating for racial justice. Supervised by Matthew Watson and Chris Clarke.
Latest publications
All of my publications are authored as Jessica Eastland-Underwood
- 'Votes cast for Trump over "the economy" may be as much about race as inflation' - LSE USAppLink opens in a new window '2024 election series'
- 'Some experts say the US economy is on the up, but here’s why voters don’t think so.' The ConservationLink opens in a new window.
- 'The whiteness of markets: Anglo-American colonialism, white supremacy and free market rhetoric.’ 2023. New Political Economy. 28(4), 662–676 https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2022.2159354
- 'What was the original intent? The Tea Party movement, the Founding Fathers, and the American welfare state.' (2023) Journal of Political Ideologies. 28(2), 219–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2021.1956758
- Book Review: The Pound and the Fury: Why Anger and Confusion Reign in an Economy Paralysed by Myth by Jack Mosse. LSE Review of Books.
Other Activities
- Co-convenor of the Race, Migration and Intersectionality specialist group with the Political Studies Association
- Invited Discussant for the Balsillie School of International Affairs and PAIS collaborative seminar on ‘International Development in the Long Duree’, October 2022
- Co-Founder of the Women in Political Studies early career working group
- Co-Chair of the 2021-2022 Critical Research and International Political Studies (CRIPS) graduate working group
- Created two new seminar series: Navigating Research Puzzles & PhD Student Papers
- Invited to present on the 'Politics of Economic Ideas' panel for the Annual PAIS Research Conference, June 202