STEM Shoutout: Dr. Lonna Atkeson

Polisci prof will delve into emotional side of politics

UNM political science professor Dr. Lonna Atkeson has won a $30,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study people’s emotions in the current political environment.

The project, called “Emotion Regulation, Attitudes, and Activism in Extraordinary Times,” is part of a one-year grant from the NSF. It will include a survey that looks at emotion regulation habits across society and looks at “whether, over time, these habits foster agreement or polarization,” according to UNM News.

“Rarely do higher education faculty get awarded a timely grant,” Atkeson said. “But this funding comes at a time when it is particularly interesting to see how emotions are contributing to the political conversation,” Atkeson told UNM News.

Atkeson is the director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections, and Democracy and has taught at UNM since 1995.