Center for Public Health Studies

Regina G. Lawrence

Division of Political Science
Hatfield School of Government
College of Urban and Public Affairs
P.O. Box 751- PS
Portland State University
Telephone: (503) 725-3056
Portland, OR 97207-0751
lawrencer@pdx.edu
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Education and Professional Experience

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Portland State University, 1999 - present.

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Syracuse University, 1998-1999.

Ph.D., Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle, 1997.

M.A., Political Science, University of Colorado at Denver, 1991.

B.A., Metropolitan State College, History/Political Science, Denver, CO, 1985
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Fields of Research and Teaching Expertise


Political Communication: Mass Media and Politics; Public Opinion; The Media and Public Policy.

Public Law: Introduction to Public Law; Supreme Court; Constitutional Law; Law and Society; Politics of Law & Order.

American Politics: Introduction to American Politics; Presidency and Congress; Campaigns and Elections; American Political Institutions; American Political Culture.

Other: Writing for the Social Sciences.
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Publications

Rethinking Media Politics and Public Opinion: Public Reactions to the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal (co-authored with W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington). Political Science Quarterly 116 (2): 1-22.

Defining Events: Problem Definition in the Media Arena. In Politics, Discourse, and American Society: New Agendas, edited by Roderick Hart and Bartholemew Sparrow (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Press).
2001

The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2000

Game-Framing the Issues: Tracking the Strategy Frame in Public Policy News.Political Communication 17(2).

Civic Engagement in the Era of Big Stories (co-authored with W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington). Political Communication 17(4).

Forthcoming The Exxon Valdez and Alaska in the American Imagination (co-authored with Thomas A. Birkland, SUNY Albany), in American Disasters: A Reader, ed. Stephen Biel, New York: New York University Press.

·Accidents, Icons, and Indexing: The Dynamics of News Coverage of Police Use of Force, Political Communication 13(4).

Reprint: Accidents, Icons, and Indexing: The Dynamics of News Coverage of Police Use of Force, in Politics, Crime Control, and Culture, ed. Stuart A. Scheingold, Hampshire, England: Dartmouth Publishing Company (1997).

News Icons and the Mainstreaming of Social Change, (with W. Lance Bennett), Journal of Communication 45(3) 1995.

Inside the 1994 Election: Campaigns, Issues, and the Struggle for Party Power (with W. Lance Bennett), Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1995
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Conference Papers and Presentations


2001 In Search of the Zeitgeist: A Systematic Approach to Measuring Social Context. Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Baltimore, August.

2000 Guns, Hollywood, and Criminal Justice: Defining the School Shootings Problem across Public Arenas (co-authored with Thomas A. Birkland, SUNY Albany). Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington D.C., August 30-September 3, 2000.

2000 Archiving Poverty: A Study in the Production of Social Knowledge (co-authored with Jill A. Edy, Middle Tennessee State University). Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington D.C., August 30-September 3, 2000.

2000 Inventing Poverty: Popular Images of the Poor and U.S. Welfare Policy, 1930 - 1996 (co-authored with Jill A. Edy, Middle Tennessee State University). Presented at the International Communication Association Annual Meeting, Acapulco, Mexico, May 26-29.

2000 Civic Engagement in the Era of Big Stories. Presented at the Communicating Civic Engagement in Europe and the United States conference at the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, May 19-20.

2000 Defining Events: Problem Definition in the Media Arena. Presented at the New Agendas in Political Communications conference, University of Texas, Austin, TX, April 6-8.

1999 Problem Definition in the Media Arena: Valdez, Columbine, and Event-Driven News. Presented at the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, University of Washington, 14 October.

Inventing Poverty: Popular Images of the Poor and U.S. Welfare Policy, 1930 - 1996 (co-authored with Jill A. Edy, Middle Tennessee State University). Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

1999 Making Sense of Monica: Media Politics and the Lewinsky Scandal (co-authored with W. Lance Bennett and Valerie Hunt, University of Washington). Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

The Exxon Valdez and Event-Driven Policy Discourse (co-authored with Thomas A. Birkland, SUNY Albany). Presented at the International Communication Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

1999 Making Sense of Monica: Public Reactions to the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal (co-authored with W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington). Presented at the International Communication Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

1999 The Exxon Valdez: Wilderness, Environmental Catastrophe, and the Place of Alaska in the American Imagination (co-authored with Thomas A. Birkland, SUNY Albany). Presented at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA.

1998 Politicians, Publics, and the Game of Politics: How the News Covered the Welfare Reform Debate. Presented at the Political Psychology Workshop Series, Columbia University.

1998 Politicians, Publics, and the Game of Politics: How the News Covered the Welfare Reform Debate. Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts.

1997 The News about Brutality: Media Coverage of Police Violence. Presented at the Law and Society Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri.

1997 Rodney King and the Rise of Community Policing: A Case Study in News Icons and Public Problems. Presented at the International Communications Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec.

1997 Normalizing Force: Typical News Representations of Police Use of Force, presented at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Tucson, Arizona.

1996 Constructing Brutality: Causal Stories and Problem Definition in the White and Black Press. Presented at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco.

1995 Policing Brutality: New York Times Coverage of Police Use of Force in the Aftermath of Rodney King. Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

1995 Icons, Indexing, and Police Brutality: An Exploration of Journalistic Norms. Presented at the International Communications Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1994 The Journalist's Tool Kit: News Icons and the Mainstreaming of Social Change (co-authored with W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington). Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, New York City.
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Additional Research Activities and Publications

Research Director, Northwest Communications Research, a project of the Center for Public Health Studies, School of Community Health, Portland State University. Current projects include an analysis for the Reclaiming Futures project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of news coverage of juvenile substance abuse, the criminal justice system, and substance abuse treatment.
Co-author, Starting a New Conversation: An Analysis of News Coverage of Antibiotic Resistance. August 2001. Supported by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Co-author, Starting a New Conversation: Environment, Health, and Interconnectedness. August 2000. Supported by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

"Reading Between the Lines on Measure 7" (co-authored with Liana Winett, DrPH, and Gerald Sussman, PhD). Oregon's Future, vol. II, no. 4, Spring 2001.

"Is There a Policing Problem? We May Never Know." Newsday, February 28th, 2001 (invited op-ed).
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Honors, Grants, and Awards

Nominee, Paul Lazarsfeld Award, American Political Science Association, for "Archiving Poverty: A Study in the Production of Social Knowledge" (co-authored with Jill A. Edy, Middle Tennessee State University), 2000.

Winner, Top Paper in Political Communication Award, International Communication Association, for "The Exxon Valdez and Event-Driven Policy Discourse" (co-authored with Thomas A. Birkland, SUNY Albany), 1999.

Nominee, Paul Lazarsfeld Award, American Political Science Association, for "Making Sense of Monica: Media Politics and the Lewinsky Scandal" (co-authored with W. Lance Bennett and Valerie Hunt, University of Washington), 1999.

Recipient, University of Washington Dissertation Fellowship, 1996.

Recipient, Goldsmith Research Award, from The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, September 1995.
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Committee Service

Executive Committee, Public Affairs and Policy program, Portland State University.

PhD development exploratory committee, Portland State University.

Urban and Public Affairs Library Steering Committee, Portland State University.

Graduate Studies Committee, Division of Political Science, Portland State University.

Curriculum Committee, Division of Political Science, Portland State University.
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Service to the Department, Profession, and Community


Member, Doris Graber Outstanding Book Award, Political Communication Section, American Political Science Association, 2001.

Chapter Adviser, Nu Pi chapter of the National Political Science Honor Society.

Faculty head, Political Science Club.

Pre-law adviser, Political Science Department.

Co-coordinator of "Energy and the Environment," a public forum, College of Urban and Public Affairs, June 1, 2001.

Co-coordinator of "Elections 2000: Beyond the Pundits, Behind the Headlines," a public forum, College of Urban and Public Affairs, October 24, 2000.

Outreach to Portland Community College: personal appearance and development of outreach materials for prospective transfer students to PSU.