Angela D. Ledford received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of South Carolina. She specializes in contemporary political theory (particularly gender theory and transnational social movements and collective violence). She teaches courses primarily in democratic theory, feminist theory, modern political thought, and race and class in America. Dr. Ledford has published articles on topics such as the movement to relocate the Confederate flag in South Carolina and the relationship between political representation and social class. Her first book, Group Representation, Feminist Theory, and the Promise of Justice, was published in 2012 and makes the case for alternative electoral arrangements to increase the representation of women and minorities in America. In her current project, she argues that desire (rather than being “natural or biological”) is powerful and deeply internalized, yet ultimately constructed. Her argument traces the emergence of a highly bifurcated sex binary and reformed racial hierarchy in the mid-to-late 19th century and makes the case that these are instrumental and necessary forces that propelled the rise and expansion of industrial capitalism in the west. She is also co-authoring (with David Schultz, Adam Hoffman, and Michelle Fletcher) an introduction to American Politics textbook entitled The New American Plutocracy. Dr. Ledford received the YWCA of the Capital Region’s Resourceful Woman of the Year Award in 2022 and has been a Professor of Political Science at The College of Saint Rose for the last 22 years.

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Dr. Laura Rabinow is the director of research for the Rockefeller Institute of Government, supporting the broad array of research conducted at the Institute and focusing her own research on environmental policy issues. Her prior work has moved between public policy research and practice.

Between 2023-2024, while working at the Institute, Rabinow served as a senior advisor for chemical safety at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, with a focus on issues related to PFAS.

Previously, Rabinow worked in the New York State Legislature in various roles, including as a chief of staff in the Assembly and as the environmental conservation, agriculture, and cultural affairs policy analyst in the Senate. Prior to her legislative experience, she worked in agricultural microfinance and foreign policy research. Rabinow’s more recent research considers New York State and federal policies with respect to drinking water and chemical contaminants, with a particular focus on the ways that public policy, social movements, and public health cultures co-construct the production of knowledge and ignorance about contaminants.

Nick Thony has worked in the New York State Assembly for over eighteen years, starting as an intern in 2008. Until 2020, Nick served as the Legislative Director for a senior Assemblymember, working closely with citizens and interests groups from across the state to pass significant legislation and to secure funding for numerous projects. Nick has also served as the Director of Public Relations for the Albany Housing Authority.

Nick received a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in history, and a PhD. in history from UAlbany. His dissertation, Lifting the Political Fog: People, Power, and Antislavery Politics in Upstate New York, 1848-1861, examines the complicated intersection of people and ideas that gave rise to the political antislavery movement in upstate New York.

Nick has taught American history at Siena University and currently teaches a course on the American Civil War at UAlbany. He hosts the History Tavern Podcast which features interviews with prominent historians.

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