Rebecca U. Thorpe is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on U.S. political institutions and state development, with an emphasis on the growth and fortification of American empire, mass suburbanization & urban gentrification, and the rise of expansive U.S. prison complex. Her first book, The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending (University of Chicago Press, 2014), examines the development and persistence of a permanent U.S. military complex and growth in presidential power to launch military actions.

Research/Teaching Areas: American Politics, American Political Development, Crime and Criminality, Housing, Incarceration, Justice, Poverty, Public Policy, Public Law.

Current Projects: Thorpe is currently working on a second book project examining how state interventions shaped the racial and spatial dimensions of poverty, violence and incarceration in post-World War II American society.