Professor Costain's current research explores the way that marginalized groups in democratic states seek to attain or expand rights and liberties. Following a year long sabbatical reviewing and gathering material on the antislavery and woman suffrage movements, she is writing a book analyzing these movements as forerunners of modern American movements. Their mobilization, tactics, and strategies foreshadowed on-going struggles over sexism and racism in American society and created patterns of resistance evident today.
keywords
American politics, politics of social movements, political parties and interest groups, sexism and racism, gender politics, the media as mediators of political messages
