Zoe C. Walker

Zoe C. Walker is an incoming Assistant Professor of Race and Ethnic Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Rochester. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan (expected 2025), an M.A. from the same university (2021), and a B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Notre Dame (2019). Her research focuses on Black politics, inequality, racial attitudes, and political behavior, particularly examining how beliefs about the American Dream influence responses to racial inequality. She is a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and has received grants from the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Academies of Science.

Her book project, When Hard Work Isn’t Enough, investigates how Black Americans’ faith in hard work as a solution to racial inequality shapes their political behavior. This work combines quantitative and qualitative data, including national surveys and structural topic models, to show that confidence in the American Dream correlates with opposition to structural solutions to inequality and reduced acknowledgment of racial barriers.

Zoe’s research has been published in Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics and RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. Her awards include the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and the Russell Sage Dissertation Research Grant.