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Michelle Irving

Michelle Irving

Postdoctoral Scholar in Political Science and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers
Michelle Irving Headshot

Professional Bio

Michelle Irving specializes at the intersections of gender, race, parenthood and voter behavior in American and Canadian politics. Her research integrates a multimethod approach, including survey experiments, text analysis, and in-depth case study work.

She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science with a certificate in Women & Gender Studies from Rutgers University. She also holds an M.A. in Political Science with a focus on gender from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a B.A. in Communications from Simon Fraser University, both in Canada. Before entering academia she worked in communications for the government in Canada.

She has taught a variety of undergraduate courses, including upper-level classes such as Women and American Politics and The Presidency, and has served as a teaching assistant for introductory courses like Law and Politics.

Her research has been supported by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Award, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, and the Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement at Purdue University.

Her doctoral research investigates the strategic value of motherhood appeals for congressional candidates and addresses whether motherhood serves as a universally beneficial campaign strategy. Employing a mixed-methods approach, she conducted in-depth case studies of six non-incumbent mother congressional candidates from 2018 to 2022, analyzing campaign materials using a novel typology of motherhood appeals. Additionally, her experimental survey research explores voter perceptions, revealing that the effectiveness of motherhood appeals is shaped by appeal type, racial identity, and partisan alignment. Her findings challenge assumptions about motherhood appeals as monolithic, demonstrating that candidates use these appeals strategically to navigate racial and gendered stereotypes, align with cultural values, and resonate with diverse voter groups. Her dissertation refines the existing typology of motherhood appeals, incorporating race and introducing novel appeal categories such as Integrated Motherhood and Model Minority Mom.

She has recently published a book chapter, “Supreme Court Mominees: Political Implications of Motherhood Rhetoric in Judicial Nominations” in Power and Politics in the Media, The Year in C-Span Archives Research Vol. 9, edited by Robert X. Browning. She also has a forthcoming book chapter analyzing the leadership and critical junctures of Tammy Duckworth in Junctures in Women’s Leadership: Politics (Rutgers University Press, Spring/Summer 2026), edited by Julie Des Jardins.

Currently, Michelle is extending her dissertation research into a book project during her postdoctoral fellowship. She is also collaborating with Dr. Amanda Bittner (Memorial University) on a study examining how Canadian Members of Parliament present their parenthood status to constituents.