Todd J. Lu

Research Background

My research investigates a puzzle that I have grappled with since Times declared 2011 the “Year of the Protester.” Despite unprecedented mass movements, why did collective action often fail to initiate political change? As a political sociologist using mixed methods, I assess how racial inequalities and institutional norms reproduce power and privilege in environmental and racial justice movements.

I also pursue collaborative projects using survey experiments and representative surveys to analyze protest perceptions of public bystanders and political attitudes of state agents – both of whom are frequent movement targets.

My research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Environmental Politics, Annual Review of Sociology, and Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World and is supported by competitive grants including the National Science Foundation funded Doctoral Dissertation Research and Improvement Grant and the Labor Research Action Network’s New Scholars Grant Award.