Associate Professor, Public Policy

Expertise: Women and politics, local politics, research methods and environmental politics, gender and political ambition, women mayors and sheriffs, Hilary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, sexism, children’s political attitudes and actions, pathways to political office

 Career Highlights:

Mirya Holman is an associate professor in public policy at the Hobby School of Public Affairs. Her research interests focus on women and politics, local politics, research methods and environmental politics. In her book "Women in Politics in the American City," she examines the effect of female mayors and city council members on urban politics. She also edited a volume on gender and political ambition: "Good Reasons to Run." She writes a newsletter addressing academic success.

Holman has been widely public in academic journals and the popular press, including NPR, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times and the Washington Post. She responds to media requests on the topics of women mayors and sheriffs, Hilary Clinton's 2016 campaign, sexism and other issues where her research intersects with newsworthy matters.

Currently, she is researching locally appointed boards and commissions, children's political attitudes, how state legislatures make decisions about controversial policies such as climate change, firearms and sexual education, the partisan politics of #MeToo, the role of religious beliefs in political attitudes and actions and the pathways to political office. Her research uses various advanced methods focusing on geographic, experimental and survey research.

Holman received her Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University in American politics and public policy and her bachelor's degree from Loyola University New Orleans in political science and history.