Ursula Hackett

🎙️ Delighted to broadcast a new
@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social
conversation with Jamila Michener and Mallory SoRelle about their new book, Uncivil Democracy: How Access to Justice Shapes Political Power.
🎧 Listen or download free: newbooksnetwork.com/uncivil-demo...

Is a River Alive? “Using NBN in my teaching reminds students that scholarship is a living, ongoing conversation rather than just a set of static texts.

Read this week's newsletter! 3 Episodes On: Rivers | Scholarly Sources with Joanne Yao | NBN in the Classroom with Ursula Hackett

Our newsletter is free so share it widely!

@qmulsse.bsky.social
@uhackett.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.substack.com/p/feb-26

🎙️ I had the pleasure of hosting a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social conversation with Stephen Skowronek on his new book, The Adaptability Paradox. Profound questions about trade-offs between democratic inclusion and constitutional resilience.
🎧 Listen or download free: newbooksnetwork.com/the-adaptabi...

NOW OUT ON FIRSTVIEW!!

Dilutive Drift: The #Racial #Impact of #Low-#Change #Redistricting

By @uhackett.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1017/S153...

The result is that unequal representation gets locked in.

“Neutral” map stability ends up reproducing racial hierarchy just as effectively as overt gerrymandering.

The pattern is stark: states with long histories of racial exclusion — especially Alabama and Louisiana — consistently made fewer changes to their districts than other states.

I create spatial measures of how much US House districts actually change from one Congress to the next.

This lets us compare "minimal change" redistricting across districts and states, and across time.

I call this process dilutive drift.

When districts don’t move but the demographics of an area do, packing & cracking can happen passively over time — even without anyone redrawing lines with discriminatory intent.

My new paper is out in Perspectives on Politics:
“Dilutive Drift: The Racial Impact of Low-Change Redistricting”
doi.org/10.1017/S153...

Core idea: racial vote dilution doesn’t only come from aggressive gerrymandering, but also when states keep district maps nearly unchanged as populations shift.

A banner reads "Perspectives on Politics" above a cityscape background. Below is a quote on a yellow strip: "First they came for the journalists and I did not speak out because they said it was all 'fake news'." The hashtag #OpenAccess is also displayed.

#OpenAccess from @poppublicsphere.bsky.social -

Dilutive Drift: The Racial Impact of Low-Change Redistricting - https://cup.org/4qNmOCQ

- @uhackett.bsky.social

#FirstView

In voting for Prop 50, California has upended two centuries of redistricting tradition | USAPP The passage of the measure is extraordinary given voters’ usual dislike for gerrymandering.

In voting for Prop 50, California has upended two centuries of redistricting tradition writes @uhackett.bsky.social of @royalholloway.bsky.social

blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

New issue! includes articles from bsky-ers @johnadearborn.bsky.social @uhackett.bsky.social @trounstine.bsky.social @michaelgreenberger.bsky.social @ayakohiramatsu.bsky.social and much more!

Thrilled to announce the publication of my paper Redrawing Democracy: Quantifying House District Continuity and Change, 1789–2024. I trace how U.S. House districts evolved since the Founding - and when/why mapmakers protect old lines instead of redrawing them. - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🚨Hiring a fully funded (3.5 years) PhD for the @ldnsocmedobs.bsky.social to research social media and politics. Candidates should have quantitative/computational skills and/or be interested in content curation/moderation. UK home candidates only unfortunately. www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/hquftp...

I really enjoyed talking with MIT’s Andrea Campbell about her fascinating new book, Taxation and Resentment (Princeton, 2025) 📖🎧🎙️

Why are Americans sceptical of taxes? It’s not simple self-interest or partisanship - racial resentment is key.

🎙️ Listen here: newbooksnetwork.com/taxation-and...

Rethinking America’s racial policy alliances: beyond “repair” and “protect” In America’s New Racial Battle Lines, King and Smith offer a compelling framework for understanding contemporary American politics through two polarized racial policy alliances – “repair” and “prot...

Thrilled to publish my paper in a symposium on Rogers Smith & Desmond King’s America’s New Racial Battle Lines.

I build on their “repair” vs. “protect” framework to rethink America’s racial policy alliances & dilemmas.

Read here: doi.org/10.1080/0141...

6/ You can read the full paper here:
📰 Studies in American Political Development:
"Redrawing Democracy: Quantifying House District Continuity and Change, 1789–2024"

doi.org/10.1017/S089...

Would love to hear your thoughts!

5/ One key takeaway:
Redistricting isn’t just about gerrymandering vs. fairness - it’s also about change vs. continuity.

Sometimes, not changing a district can be just as strategic - especially when it protects incumbents or preserves racial power structures.

4/ Here's one striking finding: despite all the political drama, most of U.S. redistricting history shows very little change — until recently.

But when change happens, it’s not random. It tracks with:

Shifts to at-large elections
Party control
Racial demographics
Legal and technical innovation

3/ I developed four new metrics to measure redistricting change, and used them to track patterns across five key eras:

Spatial Representation
Shifting Apportionment
Relative Stasis
Racial Redistricting
Precision Engineering

2/ Why does this matter?
We often focus on how districts are drawn - but not how much they change.
This paper introduces the concept of spatial protectionism - the strategic preservation of district lines - and shows how it plays out over 235 years of redistricting.

🧵 1/ Thrilled to share that my new paper is out in Studies in American Political Development:

"Redrawing Democracy: Quantifying House District Continuity and Change, 1789–2024"

It’s the first long-run empirical analysis of how much U.S. House districts actually change.

📧 Email ursula.hackett@rhul.ac.uk for Zoom registration link.

#EducationPolitics #APSA #VirtualConference @apsaedpolitics.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social @rhulpir.bsky.social

📝 Brilliant Panels on civic education & political attitudes; race, gender & free speech; private school choice; student aid; & refugee education

🌟 Open to all scholars, members & non-members alike. Attend any session or the whole event—for free!

📚 Book Roundtable: "Shaping Minds, Shaping Nations: Democracy, Protest & State Power"Featuring Agustina S. Paglayan, Domingo Morel & Matthew Nelsen🎁 Book giveaway for three lucky attendees!🕒 Thu, Feb 27 at 9am PT / 12pm ET

✨ Keynote Events:

🎤 In Conversation: "The Shifting Politics of School Choice"🗣️ Ursula Hackett & Jeffrey Henig🕒 Wed, Feb 26 at 9.10am PT / 12.10pm ET

📢 Join us for the APSA Education Politics and Policy Winter Virtual Conference!
🗓️ Feb 26–27, 9am–12.30pm PT / 12pm–3.30pm ET / 5pm-8.30pm GMT via Zoom.

Gen Z doubts about democracy laid bare in ‘worrying’ survey More than half believe the UK should be a dictatorship and there’s a stark gender divide over equality, research for Channel 4 shows

I think we should take this story from the Times today (and picked up by many other outlets) with an enormous pinch of salt for two reason (mini thread):

www.thetimes.com/uk/media/art...

Submit your education politics and policy papers to Section 51: Education Politics and Policy @apsaedpolitics.bsky.social. We look forward to receiving your submissions for #APSA2025 by the January 15!