Norma Rodriguez
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: Butte 727
Telephone: 898-6154
email: nrodriguez4@csuchico.edu

Norma Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. Her B.A. is from the California State University, Bakersfield and her M.A. and Ph.D. are from the University of Washington. She studies issues of political representation, Latino politics, and agenda setting. Her dissertation is on the representation of Latino policy issues in California. In it, she argues that Latino issues are effectively addressed only when Latinos reside in legislative districts in which they are not the only group of color. Her conclusions challenge previous work in the field, which finds that the substantive representation of Latino issues does, in fact, exist. She is currently developing a project on the effects of public initiatives on state legislatures regarding any changes that occur in the number of bills introduced on an issue and the kinds of solutions that are provided for that issue. Her teaching interests center on U.S. politics, specifically focusing on race and ethnicity, public policy formation, interest groups, urban politics, and introduction to American government.