Melissa Rogers is co-director of the Inequality and Policy Research Center, and an associate professor of political science in the Division of Politics & Economics at Claremont Graduate University. She works in the fields of comparative politics, Native American politics, political geography, political economy, Latin American politics, and comparative political institutions. Rogers earned her PhD from the University of California, San Diego, and her BA from Brown University.
Rogers studies the political economy of inequality and voting rights for Native Americans. Her research focuses on the territorial incidence of inequality and its effects on national policymaking, national state-building, and the development of the fiscal state. Much of her recent work demonstrates inequalities in voting access for Native Americans. Her first book examined the role of political institutions in shaping the distribution of resources to economic classes and geographic regions. She has two new books: Geography, Capacity, and Inequality I: Spatial Inequality (2022) and Geography, Capacity, and Inequality II: Redistribution (Forthcoming, 2025). She is also developing a manuscript on the political economy of Native American voting rights. Rogers has published in the Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Regional Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Studies in American Political Development, Journal of Historical Political Economy, Journal of Public Policy, Politics Groups and Identities, Review of International Organization, and Latin American Research Review, among other top journals.
Co-authored with Dong Wook Lee and Hillel Soifer. “The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem in Political Science.” Political Analysis (2024).
Co-authored with Jean Schroedel, Joseph Dietrich, Blake Garcia. “Revisiting the Origins of Felony Disenfranchisement in the United States.” Studies in American Political Development (2024).
Co-authored with Pablo Beramendi and Soomin Oh. “Decentralization and the Spatial Distribution of Infant Mortality in Less Developed Nations.” Regional Studies (2024).
Co-authored with Ana Salazar, Javier Rodriguez, Rena Salayeva. “Democracy, Economic Development, and Health Inequalities.” Studies in Comparative International Development (2023).
Co-authored with Jean Schroedel and Joseph Dietrich. “Structural Racism, the USPS and Voting by Mail On-and Off-Reservation in Arizona.” Studies in American
Political Development (2023).
Co-authored with Zoe Nemerever. “Measuring the Rural Continuum in Political Science.” Political Analysis, (2021).
Co-authored with Pablo Beramendi. “Decentralization and the Distributive Incidence of the Great Recession.” Regional Studies, (2020).
Co-authored with Dong Wook Lee: Inter-regional Inequality and the Dynamics of Government Spending, Journal of Politics (2019).
Co-authored with Pablo Beramendi and Mark Dincecco: Intra-elite Competition and Long-run Fiscal Development, Journal of Politics (2019).
Co-authored with Dong Wook Lee. “Measuring Geographic Distribution for Political Research.” Political Analysis, (2019).
Wealth, Poverty & Inequality
Politics of Non-Democratic Countries
Politics of Developing Countries
Democracy & Development
Comparative Political Institutions
Comparative Political Economy
Political & Economic Development in Latin America
Comparative Political Parties & Elections
Qualitative & Mixed-Methods Research
Foreign Policy of Latin America