<< Back to Faculty Christine Mahoney Professor of Public Policy and Politics and Director of Social Entrepreneurship @ UVA Education & Training Ph.D., 2006, Pennsylvania State University, Political Science Fields: American politics, Comparative politics, Research Methods & Statistical Analysis M.A., 2003, Pennsylvania State University, Political Science B.A., 2001, Pennsylvania State University, Major: International politics. 434-243-3727 cm2cg@virginia.edu Garrett Hall L020C Curriculum Vitae @CXMahoney Research Website SE@UVA Courses taught Political Institutions and Processes Leadership in the Public Arena Global Advocacy and Activism European Union Politics Experiential Social Entrepreneurship Areas of focus Advocacy Social Entrepreneurship Christine Mahoney is Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Director of Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia. She studies social justice advocacy, activism and direct action through social entrepreneurship. Her first book Brussels vs. the Beltway (Georgetown University Press) explored how advocates shape public policy in two of the most powerful political systems on the planet: the US and the EU. She conducted fieldwork in seven conflict zones in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America for her second book Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced (Cambridge University Press). The book argues we need to advance social entrepreneurship for the 60 million people displaced by violent conflict worldwide. To help foster innovative solutions to social problems she launched and leads Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia. Over the past three years the SE@UVA Initiative has introduced new courses on social entrepreneurship, a minor, a concept competition, scholarships to work with social enterprises and a myriad of student activities providing hands-on experience in social innovation. She was previously an Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and the Director of the Center for European Studies and the Maxwell EU Center. She has been a Fulbright Fellow, Visiting Scholar at Oxford, a National Science Foundation grant recipient, and recipient of the Emerging Scholar award from the American Political Science Association. Impact Investing in Action: Appalachia News Driving through Southwest Virginia, Richard Tadler, a venture capitalist and UVA graduate, was able to see firsthand some of the challenges that Virginia’s rural communities are facing; but more importantly, he was struck by the opportunities they present both for impact investors interested in facilitating economic growth at a time of transition, and for UVA students to learn about all the exciting sustainable economic development going on in their own backyard. University Faculty Learn How to Live More Connected Lives by Confronting Difficult Past News This past June, Batten professors Lucy Bassett and Andrew Pennock participated in the University’s Teaching Race at UVA seminar. Launched in the summer of 2018, the seminar which is an initiative of the Office of the Provost grew out of a desire to deepen faculty’s understanding of the University’s and greater Charlottesville’s complicated history with race. On the Advantages of a Well-Constructed Lobbying System: Towards a More Democratic, Modern Lobbying Process Research On the Advantages of a Well-Constructed Lobbying System: Towards a More Democratic, Modern Lobbying Process by Christine Mahoney Lee Drutman The American lobbying information processing system is woefully outdated. The mechanisms by which citizen, interest group, and business concerns are incorporated into the policymaking process have largely not been updated in over 200 years. Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced Research In 2015, 60 million people were displaced by violent conflict globally - the highest since World War II. National and international policy prevents the displaced from working or moving freely outside the camps set up to ‘temporarily’ house them. Post-Map-Ask: Towards a More Democratic, Modern Lobbying Process Research Framing in context: how interest groups employ framing to lobby the European Commission Research Framing plays an important role in public policy. Interest groups strategically highlight some aspects of a policy proposal while ignoring others in order to gain an advantage in the policy debate. Measuring interest group framing strategies in public policy debates Research Framing plays an important role in lobbying, as interest groups strategically highlight some aspects of policy proposals while ignoring others to shape policy debates in their favour. However, due to methodological difficulties, we have remarkably little systematic data about the framing strategies of interest groups. Partners in Advocacy: Lobbyists and Government Officials in Washington Research One of the most important demonstrations of power in Washington is the ability to recruit sitting government officials to become active proponents of one’s position. Many have suggested money is the key: Campaign contributions buy friends, access, and perhaps even policy activism. Following the Money: EU Funding of Civil Society Groups Research The literature on EU integration has long recognized that the European Commission has promoted a pan‐European civil society in order to increase the legitimacy of the supranational institutions. While we know the Commission fosters EU civil society by encouraging their formal and informal participation in the EU policymaking processes and by directly funding them (Mahoney 2004), we have, until now, known very little about just how much money the Commission has been granting EU civil society organizations and to which segments of European civil society. View All
Impact Investing in Action: Appalachia News Driving through Southwest Virginia, Richard Tadler, a venture capitalist and UVA graduate, was able to see firsthand some of the challenges that Virginia’s rural communities are facing; but more importantly, he was struck by the opportunities they present both for impact investors interested in facilitating economic growth at a time of transition, and for UVA students to learn about all the exciting sustainable economic development going on in their own backyard.
University Faculty Learn How to Live More Connected Lives by Confronting Difficult Past News This past June, Batten professors Lucy Bassett and Andrew Pennock participated in the University’s Teaching Race at UVA seminar. Launched in the summer of 2018, the seminar which is an initiative of the Office of the Provost grew out of a desire to deepen faculty’s understanding of the University’s and greater Charlottesville’s complicated history with race.
On the Advantages of a Well-Constructed Lobbying System: Towards a More Democratic, Modern Lobbying Process Research On the Advantages of a Well-Constructed Lobbying System: Towards a More Democratic, Modern Lobbying Process by Christine Mahoney Lee Drutman The American lobbying information processing system is woefully outdated. The mechanisms by which citizen, interest group, and business concerns are incorporated into the policymaking process have largely not been updated in over 200 years.
Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced Research In 2015, 60 million people were displaced by violent conflict globally - the highest since World War II. National and international policy prevents the displaced from working or moving freely outside the camps set up to ‘temporarily’ house them.
Framing in context: how interest groups employ framing to lobby the European Commission Research Framing plays an important role in public policy. Interest groups strategically highlight some aspects of a policy proposal while ignoring others in order to gain an advantage in the policy debate.
Measuring interest group framing strategies in public policy debates Research Framing plays an important role in lobbying, as interest groups strategically highlight some aspects of policy proposals while ignoring others to shape policy debates in their favour. However, due to methodological difficulties, we have remarkably little systematic data about the framing strategies of interest groups.
Partners in Advocacy: Lobbyists and Government Officials in Washington Research One of the most important demonstrations of power in Washington is the ability to recruit sitting government officials to become active proponents of one’s position. Many have suggested money is the key: Campaign contributions buy friends, access, and perhaps even policy activism.
Following the Money: EU Funding of Civil Society Groups Research The literature on EU integration has long recognized that the European Commission has promoted a pan‐European civil society in order to increase the legitimacy of the supranational institutions. While we know the Commission fosters EU civil society by encouraging their formal and informal participation in the EU policymaking processes and by directly funding them (Mahoney 2004), we have, until now, known very little about just how much money the Commission has been granting EU civil society organizations and to which segments of European civil society.
