Tessa Provins

  • Assistant Professor

Tessa Provins is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh.  Her primary research examines the impact of legislative institutional design on the behavior and outcomes for groups divided by party status, gender, and race/ethnicity. She utilizes the variation in institutional designs across American legislative institutions -- at the state and local level — to explain how institutional features effect the relationships between party leaders and their members, interactions between political parties, and the ways in which underrepresented groups are incorporated (or not) into the policy making process.   The insights from her research inform both scholars and political elites on how to design of legislative institutions to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and ultimately the quality of representation. Professor Provins completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at University of California, Merced in 2018.

Courses Taught

PS 1205 Race, Gender, and Politics
PS 1211 Legislative Process
PS 1252 State Politics

Education & Training

  • PhD University of California, Merced, 2018

Representative Publications

Compensation, Opportunity and Information: A Comparative Analysis of Legislative Nonresponse in the American States (with David Fortunato). Political Research Quarterly, 2017.  70: 644-656.

Research Interests

American Politics                          Political Economy
Subnational Politics                     Comparative Institutions
State Politics                                 Respresentation
Legislative Behavior                     Gender Politics
Party Politics                                 Race Politics
Legislative Organization
 

CV

Area of Study