Victoria S. Asbury-Kimmel

Dr. Victoria S. Asbury-Kimmel is a sociologist examining how definitions of national belonging shape democratic institutions, civic participation, and public policy. Using surveys, experiments, behavioral economics, and computational text analysis, she studies how legal, racial, and civic criteria structure social status in the national community and influence attitudes toward immigration and redistribution. Her work demonstrates that national identity is a fluid, contested space actively reshaped by political discourse and media environments. Her research primarily focuses on how identity intersects with racial hierarchies, how marginalized groups navigate belonging, and how these dynamics impact intergroup relations. Ultimately, Dr. Asbury-Kimmel links micro-level perceptions of identity to macro-level questions about democracy, showing how contested meanings of membership influence political behavior and policy outcomes.