Bethany Lee Albertson is an American political psychologist. She is an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

of political science at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. Her co-authored book ''Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World'' received the Robert E. Lane Award for being the best book in political psychology published in 2015.

Education

Albertson attended

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

for her

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in 1999, earning a Hansard Fellowship. She moved to Chicago to earn her

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

and PhD at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Career

Albertson joined the department of political science at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in 2006. During her tenure at the school, she taught courses in American politics, voting and elections, and political psychology. She also analyzed data prior to the

2008 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

with psychology professor

Anthony Greenwald Anthony Galt Greenwald is a social psychologist who, since 1986, has been a professor of psychology at the University of Washington. In 1959, Greenwald received a B.A. from Yale University. In 1961, he received a M.A. from Harvard University, a ...

. Together, they found that data from the Implicit Association Test was not a consistent or reliable representation of Democratic voters. Albertson spent three years at the University of Washington before moving to Texas to live with her recently tenured husband, Josh, and their son. Albertson joined the faculty at the

as an assistant professor but was worried about her chances at tenure during her 3rd year review. In 2014, Albertson received the Josefina Paredes Endowed Teaching Award and the Society for Political Methodology's Harold F. Gosnell Prize. The following year, she co-published a book with Shana Kushner Gadarian titled ''Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World,'' which detailed how anxiety can influence political elections. They found that when a threat is present, citizens tend to rely on government officials as "experts" and vote towards bills that are focused on protecting against said threat. Beyond acts of terrorism, they also examined how the

2009 swine flu pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1/swine flu/influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, was the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918� ...

and the fictional smallpox outbreak, which they later re-examined in a modern context during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Their book received the Robert E. Lane Award for being the best book in political psychology published in 2015. She was eventually promoted to

and awarded tenure in 2016.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albertson, Bethany Living people Place of birth missing (living people) University of Chicago alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty University of Washington faculty Loyola Marymount University alumni 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women non-fiction writers American women political scientists American political scientists 21st-century American women writers American women academics Year of birth missing (living people)