Meet AJ Rice, University of California, Santa Barbara
Project Title: Tracing the Takeover: Race, Citizenship, and the Politics of Failure
AJ Rice is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with faculty affiliations in the Department of Black Studies and the Center for Black Studies Research. Working at the intersection of African American politics, American political economy, and education policy, he studies race and democracy in American political development. His first book, Tracing the Takeover: Race, Citizenship, and the Politics of Failure, examines how state takeovers of majority-Black school districts and cities suspend local democratic authority, producing what he theorizes as conditional citizenship. The book centers on Detroit public schools, tracing Michigan’s takeover politics from 1988 to 2016 through elite interviews, discourse analysis of legislative records, survey data, and archival research. The APSA Advancing Research Grant will support the book’s final archival research at the Bentley Historical Library and the Walter P. Reuther Library. His scholarship has appeared in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society and The Popular Culture Studies Journal. A former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, Rice holds a Ph.D. in African American and African studies from Michigan State University. He spent twelve years as program manager of Detroit’s My Brother’s Keeper mentoring program.
About the APSA Advancing Research Grants for Early Career Scholars
The APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grants provide support for research that examines political science phenomena affecting historically underserved communities and underrepresented groups and communities. In July 2026, APSA awarded 15 projects for the APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grant for Early Career Scholars for a combined total award amount of 30,000.
Read about Advancing Research Grants for Early Career Scholars
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