Faculty Connections
Faculty Connections

About this site

Faculty Connections is an aggregation of UNC Charlotte faculty profiles.

Full-time faculty who want to update their profile information, see:
Connection Update

UNC Charlotte faculty and staff can log in with their NinerNET user accounts.
Log In

Colleges & Departments

  • ►Belk College of Business
    • ►Business Info Systems/Operations
    • ►Economics
    • ►Finance
    • ►Management
    • ►Marketing
    • ►Turner School of Accountancy
  • ►College of Arts + Architecture
    • ►Art & Art History
    • ►Dance
    • ►Music
    • ►Performing Arts Services
    • ►School of Architecture
    • ►Theatre
  • ►College of Computing & Informatics
    • ►Bioinformatics and Genomics
    • ►Bioinformatics Research Center
    • ►Computer Science
    • ►Software & Information Systems
  • ►College of Education
    • ►Counseling
    • ►Ctr For STEM Education
    • ►Educational Leadership
    • ►Middle Grades Secondary & K-12
    • ►Reading & Elementary ED
    • ►School & Community Partnerships
    • ►Special Ed & Child Dev
  • ►College of Health & Human Services
    • ►Kinesiology
    • ►Public Health Sciences
    • ►School of Nursing
    • ►School of Social Work
  • ▼College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
    • ►Africana Studies
    • ►Anthropology
    • ►Biological Sciences
    • ►Chemistry
    • ►Communication Studies
    • ►Criminal Justice and Criminology
    • ►English
    • ►Geography and Earth Sciences
    • ►Global Studies
    • ►History
    • ►Languages and Culture Studies
    • ►Mathematics and Statistics
    • ►Philosophy
    • ►Physics and Optical Science
    • ▼Political Science and Public Administration
      • Amber Knight
      • Benjamin Radford
      • Beth Whitaker
      • Cheryl Brown
      • Eric Heberlig
      • Frederico Batista Pereira
      • Gregory Weeks
      • Jaclyn Piatak
      • Jacqueline Chattopadhyay
      • James Douglas
      • James Walsh
      • Jason Giersch
      • Jason Windett
      • Joanne Carman
      • John Szmer
      • Joshua Miller
      • Martha Kropf
      • Mary Atkinson
      • Mary Brown
      • Mary Jo Shepherd
      • Nicholas Caste
      • Samuel Grubbs
      • Sarah Pettijohn
      • Suzanne Leland
      • Thomas Barth
      • Yaoyao Dai
      • Zachary Mohr
    • ►Psychological Science
    • ►Religious Studies
    • ►Sociology
    • ►Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies
    • Kailas Venkitasubramanian
  • ►Lee College of Engineering
    • ►Civil and Environmental Engr
    • ►Electrical & Computer Engineering
    • ►Engineering Tech & Constr Mgmt
    • ►EPIC
    • ►Mech Engineering & Engineering Sci
    • ►Student Dev & Success
    • ►Systems Engin & Engin Management
  • ►School of Data Science (SDS)

Programs, Centers & Initiatives

  • ►Center for Applied Geographic Information Science
  • ►Metropolitan Studies
    • ►Urban Institute

Top Research Links

  • performing arts
  • art
  • visual arts
  • Architecture
  • gender
  • music
  • culture
  • diversity
  • theatre
  • race
  • arts and community
  • education
  • environment
  • design
  • dance
  • arts education
  • art history
  • rhetoric
  • composition
  • sexuality
  • statistics
  • ecology
  • health disparities
  • urban design
  • politics
  • sustainability
  • computer science
  • mathematical physics
  • health
  • collaboration
  • popular culture
  • evolution
  • robotics
  • ethics
  • mental health
  • vulnerable populations
  • music education
  • biostatistics
  • social media
  • jazz
  • orchestra
  • bioinformatics
  • technology
  • aging
  • machine learning

Full-Text Search

Mary Atkinson

Political Science and Public Administration
Summary | Full Profile

Office: Fretwell 435E
Phone: 704-687-7055
Email: MAtkinson@uncc.edu
Twitter: @QueenCityProf

Academic Interests
gender and legislative agendas
issue framing
media
policy debate
public opinion
Related People
Javier Garcia Leon
Sean McCloud
Debra Smith
Aaron Toscano
Jonathan Crane
Jacqueline Chattopadhyay
Martha Kropf

Mel Atkinson is associate professor of political science at UNC Charlotte. Her research focuses on agenda setting and the policymaking process, with an emphasis on the roles public opinion, issue framing, media coverage, and gender stereotypes play in shaping policy debate.

Dr. Atkinson teaches an introductory American politics course and upper-level courses on women and politics, media and politics, and issue framing. She is a faculty affiliate of UNCC’s Women and Gender Studies Program, and of the Public Policy Program.

Prior to her academic career, Dr. Atkinson worked as a writer for a K Street communications firm and as a campaign manager. She now studies the impact of the slogans and sound bites she once helped to create.

Recent Publications

atkinson-final
  • Atkinson, Mary Layton. 2017. Combative Politics: The Media and Public Perceptions of Lawmaking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Atkinson, Mary Layton. 2020. “Gender and Policy Agendas in the Post-War House.” Policy Studies Journal. 48(1): 133-156. doi:10.1111/psj.12237
  • Atkinson, Mary Layton and Jason Harold Windett. 2019. “Gender Stereotypes and the Policy Priorities of Women in Congress” Political Behavior. 41(3): 769–789.
  • Atkinson, Mary Layton. 2018. “Real News, Fake News: For Lawmakers, No News is Good News.” Extensions: A Journal of the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center. Winter, 2018.
  • Atkinson, Mary Layton, John Lovett and Frank R. Baumgartner. 2014. “Measuring The Media Agenda,” Political Communication, 31(2): 355-380.

Work in Progress

  • Three Models of Opinion Dynamics (under contract with Cambridge University Press). (With Jim Stimson, Frank Baumgartner and Elizabeth Coggins)
  • Detecting diverse perspectives: using text analytics to reveal sex differences in congressional debate about defense (R&R). (With Reza Mousavi and Jason Windett).
  • The Impact of Gender on Responses to Covid-19: Evidence from the U.S. States. (With Jason Windett, Samira Shaikh, Ben Radford, Zhuo Cheng, Stephanie Moller, and Nathaniel Birkhead).
  • Gender, Race, and News Coverage of the 2020 Democratic Primaries (manuscript in preparation).
  • Alerts
  • Jobs
  • Make a Gift
  • Maps / Directions
  • Accessibility IconAccessibility
Follow UNC Charlotte
Facebook Blogger Twitter Flickr YouTube
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 · 704-687-UNCC (8622) © 2014 UNC Charlotte | All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use | Policy Statements | Contact Us
Skip to toolbar
  • Log In