Amanda Stevenson
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Sociology
Information Science

Amanda Jean Stevenson is a sociologist trained in demographic and computer science methods.Ìý She studies the impacts of and responses to abortion and family planning policy. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. In her current research, she uses demographic methods to study the impacts of reproductive health policies, and computational methods to study social responses to these policies.

At Boulder she leads a team using massive administrative data at the Census Bureau to evaluateÌýthe life course consequences of access to (as opposed to use of) highly effective contraception. ÌýShe also co-leads a collaborationÌýbased in Texas using mixed-methods evaluating the impact of changes to Texas' judicial bypass process for minors seeking abortion care. ÌýAnd she contributes to a variety of ongoing evaluations of Texas' various reproductive health policies.

Her analyses of the impact of reproductive health policies have appeared in theÌýNew England Journal of Medicine, theÌýAmerican Journal of Public Health,ÌýObstetrics and GynecologyÌýand the journalÌýContraception.Ìý She translates her results into policy-relevant findings for non-academic audiences.Ìý For example, she regularly testifies on the demographic impacts of legislation, she developed an app to disseminate local impact estimates from her policy evaluation work, and her research has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, and in The New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Austin-American Statesman, The Houston Chronicle, The Seattle Times, the Texas TribuneÌýand other outlets.

Another line of research examines the social responses to reproductive health policies.Ìý In a current project, she uses Twitter responses, website content, media coverageÌýand in-depthÌýinterviews to examine the social movement response to Texas' 2013 abortion restrictions. ÌýThe case provides an opportunity to investigate how social movements negotiate intersectional critiques from within their ranks. ÌýShe focuses onÌýthe role of emotions and relationships in transmitting intersectional framing and analyses to central actors and the ways in which elites' adoptions of intersectional rhetoric shifts power within a movement.Ìý