Elizabeth Beaumont
Affiliations
Elizabeth Beaumont is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Her work centers on constitutionalism, democracy, and American political development as well as civic engagement and education. She is particularly interested in problems of unequal citizenship, rights debates, and popular constitutionalism.
Her new book, The Civic Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2014), focuses on the role of several major civic groups and social movements in shaping American constitutional creation and change. She examines 18th c. Revolutionaries, Anti-Federalists, Abolitionists, and Woman Suffragists as "civic founders" who profoundly influenced the Constitution's text, allocations of power, definitions of citizenship, and the meanings of rights. The Civic Constitution will be featured in a forthcoming symposium in Constitutional Commentary and a Critical Dialogue in Perspectives on Politics.
Prior to joining the Political Science Department, Beaumont was a Research Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. She helped lead the Foundation's work on civic education, including serving as co-Principal Investigator and Director of the national Political Engagement Project. These interdisciplinary, multi-method research projects are the basis of two co-authored books: Educating for Democracy (Wiley 2007) and Educating Citizens (Jossey-Bass 2003). The books are resource texts for the American Democracy Project, an AASCU partnership including more than 240 state college campuses, and for the national report, A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future (National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, 2012).
Professor Beaumont's scholarship has been recognized by a McKnight Land-Grant Junior Professorship (2008-2010), the University of Minnesota's highest research award for junior faculty. Her research has also been supported by a number of major grants and fellowships, including awards from the Ford and Hewlett Foundations. Her work has appeared in a range of publications, including The Journal of Politics, Political Theory, and the Stanford Law Review, and encompasses writing on American constitutional thought and development, constitutional and political theory, and civic education and engagement among young people.Current Research Projects
Unruly Citizens: Dissent, Disobedience, and the Rule of Law (book project)
Gender Justice and the Limits of Legal Liberalism
The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement: Challenges to Jim Crow Constitutionalism, Racial Violence, and Caste Citizenship
Re-Constituting Republics: Philip Pettit’s New Republicanism
Civic Discourse across DifferenceFields: public law; political theory; political socialization and civic engagement