Jessica Eastland-Underwood
PhD Student
Jess.Underwood@warwick.ac.uk

Research Interests

Although my PhD research is focused on the USA, I am more broadly interested in everyday understandings of the economy and democratic action, including:

• Everyday political thought
• 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

I am currently drafting my PhD thesis, which examines how everyday conceptions of 'the economy' mobilised Reopen the Economy (anti-lockdown) and Black Lives Matter (George Floyd) protest movements during the Covid-19 pandemic. Supervised by Matthew Watson and Chris Clarke.

Latest publications

All of my publications are authored as Jessica Eastland-Underwood

• '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

• Interviewed for the USSO podcast 'Midwestern Populist Movements and "The Economy"'
• 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