ZOE C. WALKER, Ph.D.
Welcome! I am an incoming Assistant Professor of Race and Ethnic politics in the department of political science at the University of Rochester.
My book project, The Cost of the Dream, uses evidence from Black public opinion to interrogate the influence of the American Dream myth on popular discourse about the nature of racial inequality.
My broader research agenda investigates the relationship between American Exceptionalism and attitudes about inequality. My work has appeared in the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics and RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. My research has been supported by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the American Political Science Association, and the Russell Sage Foundation.
I received my Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan in 2025 and my B.A. in political science and English from the University of Notre Dame in 2019.
