A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz
Education
- Ph.D., political science, Syracuse University
- M.A., political science, Syracuse University
- B.A., public policy, Hamilton College
- Graduate certificate in women’s studies, Syracuse University
- Certificate in university teaching, Syracuse University
Teaching Interests
I teach courses on American political institutions (U.S. Congress, the American Presidency), gender and politics, and political organizations and democratic voice.
Who governs? Do the people rule? Are citizens of the United States sovereign, semi-sovereign, or perhaps powerless in the shadow of more powerful interests? Under what conditions and through what mechanisms can citizens exercise influence over the course of American politics? These are the sorts of questions that animate the study of American politics and democracy and that inform my pedagogical approach to teaching at Muhlenberg. If there is a single normative value guiding my approach in the classroom it is that politics is for everyone.
Research and Scholarship
My research interests are diverse but essentially rooted in a central focus on state-society relationships. I study how groups of individuals and interests mobilize around and interact with political institutions. I have a particular interest in women’s political engagement and ambition, American political development and community-based forms of engagement through which citizens work for political and social change. I’m also deeply rooted in research here in the Lehigh Valley, particularly around issues created to the social determinants of health, aging and disability.
As the 2024-2025 Class of ’32 Research Professor, I am writing a book on the history of sex, gender, and the draft in the United States. I examine how lawmakers’ views on sex difference have been central to shaping men’s and women’s obligations and responsibilities to the government
- Dana Scholars Directed Studies
- Gender, Politics, & Policy
- Introduction to American Government & Democratic Politics
- Introduction to Political Science Inquiry
- The American Presidency (or Autocracy?)
Teaching American Government and Politics: Centering Democratic Citizenship and Engagement in the Introductory Classroom, co-authored with Jennie Sweet-Cushman (Chatham University), Edward Elgar Publishing, February 2024.
Terrizzi, Sabrina, A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz, and Michele Deegan. 2021. “State versus Federal Health Care Marketplaces: A Bigger Deal for Medicaid and a Smaller Deal for the Individual Mandate.” Health Policy Open 3: December. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpopen.2021.100059
Niebler, Sarah and A Lanethea Mathews-Schultz. 2021. “What do Pennsylvania Voters Think about Gender and Women’s Representation? What We Learned from the 2016 and 2018 Exit Polls.” Commonwealth: The Journal of Pennsylvania Politics & Policy. 21 (Special Issue on Women in Pennsylvania Politics). https://doi.org/10.15367/com.v21i1.286
Mathews-Schultz, A. Lanethea. 2020. “The Untold History of the United Nations and the Organization and Mobilization of Interests in the Postwar United States.” Social Science History 44: 197-222. doi:10.1017/ssh.2020.4
Mariani, Mack, Bryan Marshall, and A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz. 2019. "Assessing the Effects of Female Political Role Models on Young Women’s Anticipated Political Engagement." SAGE Research Methods Cases Part 2, 2019. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526467126
Political Science
Women's and Gender Studies
- Class of '32 Research Professor
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