Research and Program Areas

Post-Institutional Black Politics

CARD’s work on Post-Institutional Black Politics examines how Black Americans are making sense of politics in a moment when many of the institutions that once structured Black political life no longer hold the same authority, trust, or organizing power. This work begins from a simple but urgent question: what does Black politics look like when people are no longer primarily moving through the organizations, parties, churches, civic groups, and advocacy spaces that scholars and strategists have traditionally centered?

In partnership with scholars and practitioners, this research looks beyond the most visible activist spaces to better understand how Black political ideas are forming across everyday life: in families, workplaces, cultural spaces, online communities, local networks, and informal conversations. We are especially interested in how Black Americans are interpreting institutional failure, political abandonment, economic insecurity, and the changing meaning of representation.

This area of work also includes a deeper focus on Black men’s political experiences, particularly in relation to the criminal legal system and other institutions that shape civic belonging, alienation, and political possibility. At the same time, we examine the Black online experience, including the rise of the Black manosphere, the appeal of right-wing messaging to some Black communities, and the ways women of color are being targeted by new political narratives. Rather than treating these developments as isolated trends, CARD studies them as part of a broader reorganization of Black political life.

Gender, Intimacy, and Political Formation

CARD’s work on Gender, Intimacy, and Political Formation explores how changing gender norms are reshaping politics in ways that do not always fit conventional ideological categories. Gender is not only showing up in debates over abortion, LGBTQ rights, or workplace equality. It is also being activated through conversations about dating, family, work, masculinity, motherhood, fatherhood, health, safety, and the search for meaning in a precarious economy.

This research asks how people are responding to the perceived failures of post-#MeToo liberal feminism, girlboss feminism, and older models of gender equality that emphasized individual success without fully addressing people’s desires for care, intimacy, romance, family, dignity, and belonging. We are interested in how both the left and the right are speaking to these desires, and where political movements are either meeting the moment or missing it.

The project also examines the political role of men and masculinity, including the shifting meaning of fatherhood, the backlash against institutional feminism, and the appeal of online communities that offer young men scripts for understanding rejection, grievance, discipline, and self-worth. By studying gender as a terrain of political formation, CARD seeks to understand how intimate life is becoming a central site where people make sense of power, identity, and the future.

Health and Wellness Politics

CARD’s work on Health and Wellness Politics examines how people are making sense of health, wellness, bodily autonomy, institutional mistrust, and care in a period of deep political and social instability. Health and wellness have become more than personal lifestyle concerns. They are increasingly sites where people debate corporate power, government failure, medical authority, gender, parenting, food systems, environmental harm, and the meaning of freedom.

This research asks how people, especially young people and young women, are thinking about health and wellness as central to their lives and political identities. What do people believe they are owed by institutions? Where do they turn when they no longer trust those institutions? And how are wellness spaces becoming politically significant, including through movements and narratives that do not map neatly onto left-right divides?

CARD is developing this area through survey research, fieldwork, and potential partnerships with health policy and public opinion institutions. Over time, this work seeks to bring together researchers, organizers, health practitioners, and strategists to better understand the politics of wellness and the opportunities for a more democratic, care-centered response.

Youth Politics and Democratic Dealignment

CARD’s work on Youth Politics and Democratic Dealignment examines how young people are experiencing politics in a period of institutional distrust, economic insecurity, and weakening attachment to both major political parties. Young people are often described as cynical, disengaged, or drifting rightward. But the reality is more complicated. Many are deeply dissatisfied with the political system, but they are also less rigidly polarized than older generations and more open to political ideas that do not fit neatly within existing partisan frameworks.

This work builds on emerging research about the broken relationship between young people and democracy. CARD is especially interested in how youth understand political failure, what kinds of institutions they trust or distrust, and where they see real possibilities for collective action. Through interviews, polling synthesis, and analysis of youth political behavior, we are exploring how cynicism forms, when it hardens into withdrawal, and when it might become a starting point for democratic renewal.

This work does not assume that youth dissatisfaction is producing an enduring right-wing shift. Instead, it asks a more open question: what kinds of political homes, narratives, and institutions could actually speak to young people’s lives? By taking youth cynicism seriously without treating it as the whole story, CARD seeks to identify openings for a more honest and durable democratic politics.

Labor, Political Heterodoxy, and Building Collective Power

CARD’s labor research examines how unions are navigating political heterodoxy among their members and how they might become stronger political homes for working people in a moment of dealignment. Unions are among the few institutions that still have the ability to organize people across ideology, race, geography, and class. But that potential is not automatic. It depends on whether members experience the union not only as a workplace advocate, but as a broader source of political meaning, trust, and collective power.

This work asks how labor unions are engaging members whose political views may not align neatly with the priorities of either major party or the assumptions of progressive organizations. How do members understand the purpose of their union? Do they see it only as a vehicle for wages, benefits, and contracts, or as a place where they can make sense of politics and build power together? What practices help move a union from being a strong workplace force to being a strong political force?

CARD is exploring these questions through survey research and interviews, including work with SEIU 1199 in Connecticut. We are particularly interested in in understanding how workers interpret party politics, institutional failure, and the role of unions in their lives. This research aims to identify the practices that allow unions to become durable political hubs in an age of fragmentation.