Dr. Jennifer Erkulwater

Jennifer L. Erkulwater is a professor of political science and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Her undergraduate degree is from Rhodes College, in Memphis, Tennessee, and she received her Ph.D. from Boston College, where she was the Tip O’Neill fellow for American politics. Before joining the faculty at the University of Richmond, she served as a teaching fellow at Boston College and a research fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

Erkulwater’s scholarship and teaching interests center on U.S. politics and public policy, economic and social inequality, the American welfare state, and disability politics and policy. In addition to several articles and books chapters, Erkulwater has written two books on disability politics and social welfare policy, Disability Rights and the American Social Safety Net (Cornell University Press, 2006) and Medicating Kids: ADHD and Pediatric Mental Health (Harvard University Press, 2009), co-authored Dr. Rick Mayes and Dr. Catherine Bagwell. A third book, Disability in Black and White: The Racial Politics of Disability Inclusion, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. At the University of Richmond, Erkulwater has received the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the School of Arts & Sciences, the Distinguished Educator Award, and the Distinguished Faculty Service Award. She currently serves on the American Political Science Association’s Committee on the Status of Disability in the Profession.