My research examines the relationship between race and democracy in American cities, with a central focus on school takeover policies in Michigan. I use archival methods, process tracing, interviews, and legislative analysis to study how democratic governance is dismantled and restructured—and the consequences of those changes for Black communities.

Current Book Project

My book manuscript examines how the state of Michigan used takeover policies to dismantle democratic governance in Detroit’s public school system. Drawing on archival data, in-depth interviews, legislative records, and public records, the project traces how political and economic elites constructed Detroit’s schools as a site of failure—and how that construction enabled the transfer of governing authority from locally elected officials to state-appointed managers. By shifting analytical focus to the pre-enactment phase of policymaking—problem definition, agenda setting, and policy design—the project offers new insight into how race shapes the development of public policy. The book contributes to scholarship on American political economy, racial politics, and education policy.

Beyond the book, my research extends in several directions. This includes 1) pursuing comparative analysis of how racialized problem definition operates across state takeover regimes, municipal receiverships, and emergency management structures, and 2) exploring how grassroots actors in Detroit developed independent analytical frameworks for understanding privatization and dispossession. This work sheds light on how communities develop political strategies and frameworks of resistance in the face of institutional restructuring.

Across these projects, I ask a set of enduring questions: How do democratic systems produce racially unequal burdens? What role does language play in constructing the political conditions for democratic displacement? And how do Black communities assert democratic claims when formal channels of participation have been stripped away?

Journal Articles

Rice, A. (2025). “Converting Accountability: Race, Agenda Setting, and the Production of School Failure.” Journal of Public Policy. (Under Review).

Rice, A. (2021). “Political Economy and the Tradition of Radical Black Study.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, 22(1), 44–55.

Rice, A. & Mays, K. (2020). “The Boondocks, Black History, and Black Lives Matter: Or, Why Black Popular Culture Matters for Black Millennials.” The Popular Culture Studies Journal, 8(2), 49–67.

Rice, A. & Rice, P. (2015). “Two Brothers Reflect on ‘Spirit of Detroit.’” Text and Performance Quarterly, 35(1), 83–86.

Book Reviews

Rice, A. (2024). Review of Closed for Democracy: How Mass School Closure Undermines the Citizenship of Black Americans. Perspectives on Politics.

Rice, A. (2021). Review of Black Landscapes Matter. Journal of Cultural Geography, 38(3), 434–435.