Khalilah L. Brown-Dean

Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean is an Award-Winning Scholar, Educator, and Author. Her scholarship centers the importance of identity in shaping access to democracy with a particular emphasis on voting rights, civic engagement, and punishment. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University (2003) and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from The University of Virginia (1998). She is Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University. In 2021 she was recognized as a Spotlight Recipient by the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.

Dr. Brown-Dean’s scholarship appears in numerous scholarly publications and popular outlets. Her book Identity Politics in the United States traces the confluence of public policy, law, and institutional design in structuring political divisions. Her newest book project, Protesting Vulnerability: Race and Pandemic Politics, is under contract with Cambridge University Press and co-authored with Professor Ray Block Jr. of Penn State University. She is co-author of a Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies report on the contemporary status of voting rights in the United States that was presented during the 50th Anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March in Selma, Alabama.

Brown-Dean is a highly sought-after political analyst and commentator whose work appears in over 400 major media outlets. She hosts the radio show and podcast, Disrupted, for Connecticut Public Radio and is featured in the documentaries, “The Color of Justice” and “Extinction.” Diverse Magazine named her one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Higher Education. You can learn more about her work at kbdphd.com.