Dr. Laurie Rice

Project Co-leader

Dr. Laurie L. Rice is the project co-leader for REVERSE.  She is the Interim Chair and Professor of Political Science at SIUE.  Her research expertise includes political communication, political behavior, and young adult civic engagement, topics on which she has published multiple books and articles, including The Political Voices of Generation Z, a 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.  Along with her project co-leader, Dr. Suranjan Weeraratne, she has secured over $800,000 in grant funding related to targeted violence prevention.  As a result of this work, Rice, Weeraratne, and their co-author, Dr. Ken Moffett, have multiple current working papers linking various risk factors and protective factors to support for violence and exploring interventions that reduce support for violence. 

Rice has a long track record of partnering with civic groups to increase civic education and engagement at the high school and university levels and in the community. In addition, while leading a travel study program to Northern Ireland, Rice learned about political violence prevention techniques and programs from various community and law enforcement agencies; these influenced her work on preventing political violence in the United States.