Research
I am a sociologist of democracy. I study how ordinary people become collective actors capable of shaping public life, and under what conditions that capacity strengthens or erodes democratic institutions. My research examines civic actors across the ideological spectrum, in the United States and Brazil.
Books
- Hahrie Han, Elizabeth McKenna, and Michelle Oyakawa. Prisms of the People: Power and Organizing in 21st Century America. University of Chicago Press, 2021. Winner of the Michael Harrington Book Award, APSA (2022).
- Elizabeth McKenna and Hahrie Han. Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Book projects
- Elizabeth McKenna. The Paradox of Participation: Organizing Authoritarianism in Democratic Brazil. Full manuscript submitted to Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics).
- Elizabeth McKenna. The Regulars: The Making and Measure of Democratic Agency. Data collection complete; one chapter available as a working paper.
- Elizabeth McKenna (ed.). Organized: The Mamdani Campaign and the Case for People-First Politics. Edited volume with ten contributors; manuscript delivery Spring 2027.
Peer-reviewed articles
- Elizabeth McKenna and Catharina O’Donnell. “Satellite Political Movements: How Grassroots Activists Bolster Trump and Bolsonaro in the United States and Brazil.” American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 68 (13): 1782–1803, 2024. DOI
- Matthew Richmond and Elizabeth McKenna. “Placing the Peripheries Within Brazil’s Rightward Turn: Urban Transformation and Electoral Realignment.” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Vol. 42(4): 509–26, 2023. DOI
- Hahrie Han, Andrea Campbell, and Elizabeth McKenna. “Civic Feedbacks: Linking Collective Action, Organizational Strategy, and Influence over Public Policy.” Perspectives on Politics, 21(4): 1432–46, 2022. Cambridge
- Michelle Oyakawa, Elizabeth McKenna, and Hahrie Han. “Habits of Courage: Reconceptualizing Risk in Social Movement Organizing.” Journal of Community Psychology 49: 3101–21, 2021. DOI
- Elizabeth McKenna. “Taxes and Tithes: The Organizational Foundations of Bolsonarismo.” International Sociology 35 (6): 610–631, 2020. DOI
- Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna. “The Untilled Field of Field Campaigns.” Perspectives on Politics 14(3): 750–57, 2016. DOI
Peer-reviewed chapters
- Larissa Guimarães, Matthew Richmond, and Elizabeth McKenna. “Misalignment, Realignment, or Deviation? The PT, Bolsonaro, and the Electoral Geography of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro” in Ultraliberal Ideology and the Manufacture of Consensus, Cristina Pereira de Araujo and Luciano Muniz Abreu (orgs.). Editora Alameda, 2025.
- Breno Bringel and Elizabeth McKenna. “Social Movements in a Global Context” in The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook (3rd ed.), Walter W. Powell and Patricia Bromley, eds. Stanford University Press, 2020. DOI
- Marshall Ganz and Elizabeth McKenna. “Bringing Leadership Back In” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (2nd ed.), David A. Snow et al., eds. Wiley-Blackwell, 2018. DOI
Working papers
- Elizabeth McKenna. “From Mobilization to Organization: The Afterlives of Protest in the Digital Age.” Revised and resubmitted, American Sociological Review. DASH
- Elizabeth McKenna. “Many Show Up, Few Return: Leadership and Retention in Civic Associations.” Under review, American Sociological Review. DASH
- Elizabeth McKenna. “Political Redlining by Algorithm.” Under review, Socius. DASH
- James N. Druckman, Devorah Manekin, Lior Sheffer, Jennifer Oser, Tamar Mitts, Jae Yeon Kim, and Elizabeth McKenna. “Race, Violence, and the Effectiveness of Protest.” Under review, American Journal of Political Science. SSRN
In progress
- Elizabeth McKenna. “A Nation of Mobilizers: Franchising Contention from Chapters to Crowds.”
- Elizabeth McKenna. “Seeing Like a Movement: Depth, Scale, and the Infrastructure of Democratic Organizing.”
- Elizabeth McKenna. “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Social Movement Studies.”
- Christian Caballero, Jae Yeon Kim, and Elizabeth McKenna. “Between Donors and Democracy: How Civic Organizations Navigate Competing Definitions of Success.”
- Elizabeth McKenna, Dorothy Manevich, and Yvette Bailey-Emberson. “Civic Perception Project: How State Legislators Evaluate Grassroots Groups.”
- Elizabeth McKenna, Marshall Ganz, and Emily Lin. “Democracy in Modern America: Cultivating Collective Agency in Contemporary Social Movements.”
Field-facing reports & case studies
- Joy Cushman and Elizabeth McKenna. “Civic Power: The Role and Impact of Independent Political Organizations in Expanding the Electorate and Building Governing Influence.” Pro-Democracy Campaign and the Organizing Lab, 2025. Winner of a 2025 Expy Award from the Analyst Institute.
- “Through a New Lens: Physicians for Human Rights’ Photovoice Research with Kenyan Survivors of Sexual Violence.” HKS Case Program, 2024.
- Elizabeth McKenna and Elizabeth Wood. “It Takes Ten Years: Organizational Sources of State-Level Political Power.” Democracy and Power Innovation Fund, 2024.
- Joy Cushman and Elizabeth McKenna. “Power Metrics: Measuring What Matters to Build a Multiracial Democracy.” Democracy and Power Innovation Fund, 2023.
- Pamela Varley (faculty lead: Elizabeth McKenna). “Getting Out the (Missing) Vote: Ohio Organizers Experiment with ‘Relational’ Contacts.” HKS Case Program, 2023.
- Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna. “The AMOS Project and the Campaign for Universal Preschool.” SNF Agora Case Studies Series, 2021.
- Elizabeth McKenna and Peter Levine. “The ISAIAH Trash Referendum.” SNF Agora Case Studies Series, 2020.
- Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna. “Hillary for America and the 2016 Election: A Field Organization Inquiry and Debrief.” Confidential report, 2017.
Full details, invited talks, and prior working papers on the CV.