Category Archives: Section Journal: Politics and Religion

Dear APSA Religion & Politics section members,

This is a brief update with some great news about our section’s journal, Politics & Religion.

First, we are excited to announce that beginning Friday, April 6th, Politics & Religion will be run through Editorial Manager which is used by the other leading APSA journals. All submissions, reviews, and other journal correspondence will be conducted through this online system. This will make the publication process more transparent for all those involved and enable a more efficient review process. We, as co-editors, will have access to contact information of APSA members and their corresponding research interests which will facilitate the location of appropriate reviewers. If you are not registered with the editorial manager system already or you wish to submit a manuscript, please do so by following this link:

www.editorialmanager.com/prj

Second, we can report that the journal is healthy:

Submissions are up from this period last year (24 through March, compared to 16 in 2011) and response times on new submissions reflect the standards set by leading political science journals.

As you may be aware, the journal is now published three times per year (with 7 articles per issue), but in 2013 this will increase to four times per year (with 8 articles per issue). Moving to a quarterly publication will expedite publication of articles and ensure that the journal reflects the most current research.

In addition, from July 2012, articles accepted for publication will appear online at the Politics & Religion Cambridge website. This early online access before publication should encourage authors to place work with the journal. Moreover, Cambridge generously granted us 4 additional articles across the last two issues of volume 5 this year to help publish accepted articles faster.

We are very excited about the new developments for Politics & Religion and hope you are too. Please continue to evangelize about Politics & Religion as an outlet for research and send us your best work on religion and politics.

Sincerely,
Angelia Wilson and Paul Djupe, coeditors
Politics & Religion

Paul A. Djupe

Denison University

I joined the faculty in 1999 holding a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and regularly teach courses in American politics outside of the governmental institutions. I specializes in American public opinion and political behavior, with particular interests in the political influence of religion and the nature of social network influence. Uniting these two elements is a concern for the role of organizations in packaging social interaction and mandating exposure to information. My current research investigates, among other things, gender and social networks, the social psychology of religious influence, and deliberative norms in American religion. 

Angelia R. Wilson

University of Manchester

Angelia Wilson (D.Phil, University of York; B.A. Hons. McMurry University) joined the University of Manchester in 1994. Currently, she serves on the Council of the American Political Science Association, having served previously on the APSA Committee on the Status of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered in the Profession (2006-2009), as chair of the APSA LGBT Caucus and a founding member of APSA Sexuality & Politics Section.

Abstract

Religious appeals have been part and parcel of campaign strategy for decades. Most often, however, these appeals to have come from men, but little is known about how women would fare using religious appeals on the campaign trail. To remedy this, we used an experimental design to examine voter reaction to religious appeals from a female and a male candidate competing for an open United States Senate seat. We find that women's use of religious appeals is governed by the dynamics of tokenism — reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes and serving to reduce voter support of the female candidate. This suggests that women must be careful in using a key campaign tool traditionally employed by men, and that this may affect the extent to which female candidates can effectively shape voter perceptions on the campaign trail.

Details: Cambridge Journals Page