Mark Setzler

Webpage: https://marksetzler.org

Professor Setzler has been at HPU for over two decades.  He grew up on a mule ranch outside of Boise, Idaho. He earned his B.A. in Political Science and Spanish Literature at Oregon’s Pacific University, and his Ph.D. in political science is from the University of Texas at Austin. Before completing his doctorate, he worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill, with a law firm in Washington, and as a research analyst for an urban issues political think tank in Austin. Prior to coming to HPU, he was a visiting professor at the University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College.

Professor Setzler’s research focuses primarily on how democracies can be made more responsive to historically marginalized groups. Much of his scholarship explores political behavior in Latin America, especially Brazil, where he has interviewed hundreds of state deputies, city councilors, bureaucrats, and community leaders. He also examines political behavior and public policy in the US, where his work has centered on attitudes, behaviors, and policies that adversely affect immigrants, women, and ethnic, racial, and sexual minorities. His scholarship has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Boren Fellows Program. He is the co-author of a study that received the Theodore Lowi Award from the Policy Studies Association and was named article of the year by the Policy Studies Journal. His other published research and scholarship in print includes articles in The Brazilian Political Science Review, PS: Political Science & Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, American Politics Review, Politics & Gender, Religion and Politics, International Migration Review, and Politics, Groups, and Identities. He has published multiple studies in The Latin Americanist and served as an Associate Editor at this journal between 2019 and 2023.

Outside of the classroom, Professor Setzler enjoys spending time with his family, pleasure reading books in Portuguese that he would never find the time for otherwise, and fly fishing in the Appalachians.