Pinderhughes is Notre Dame Presidential Faculty Fellow at the University of Notre Dame in the USA. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Political Science and in the Department of Africana Studies. She chaired Africana Studies from 2015-2021. Pinderhughes is a Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a Faculty Affiliate in the Gender Studies Program, and is also a Concurrent faculty member in the Department of American Studies. She is a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Pinderhughes served as President of the American Political Science Association from 2007-2008, and as President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists from 1988-89. The APSA Presidential Task Force she appointed completed its report: Political Science in the 21stt Century, in 2011. She has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and she is a member of the Board of Governors of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Pinderhughes was First Vice President of the International Political Science Association (2014-2016) and Program Co-Chair of the 24th World Congress in Poznan, Poland in 2016.
Pinderhughes’ research addresses inequality with a focus on racial, ethnic and gender politics and public policy in the Americas, explores the creation of American civil society institutions in the twentieth century, and analyzes their influence on the formation of voting rights policy. Her publications include Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory, University of Illinois Press, (1987). Black Politics After the Civil Rights Revolution: Collected Essays, Routledge, is forthcoming. She is co-author with Carol Hardy-Fanta, Pei-te Lien and Christine Sierra of Contested Transformation: Race, Gender and Political Leadership in 21st Century America, Cambridge University Press, (2016); and co-author with Todd Shaw, Louis DeSipio and Toni-Michelle Travis of Uneven Roads: An Introduction to US Racial and Ethnic Politics, Congressional Quarterly Press, (2015, 2018).
