Megan Ming Francis is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University, Malibu. She completed her PhD in the department of politics at Princeton University, New Jersey in 2008, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago in 2008 9 and as a Jerome Hall Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center of Law, Society, and Culture at Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2009 10. Francis's research interests include American political development, race, crime, civil liberties, and civil rights.