Research & Media

My substantive research interests include tolerance, race, polarization, and identity. My methodological interests are experimental methods, survey research methodology, network analysis, econometric analysis, and causal inference. 

Dissertation: 

"God, Guns, and Guts: Racial Priming and White Support for the Expression of Civil Liberties Amongst Black Americans" 

Committee: Anand Sokhey (Chair), Vanessa Baird, John Griffin, Joshua Strayhorn, and Michael McDevitt 

In this dissertation, Courtney works to answer a question fundamental to the proper function of American democracy: is public support for the expression of civil liberties racialized?  While much research on this aspect of tolerance has focused on tolerance toward an outgroup, little has considered tolerance toward Black Americans by white Americans. By focusing on support for protest, gun ownership, and religious expression, Courtney focuses on the causal relationship between race and tolerance, highlighting multiple mechanisms through which tolerance is racialized: white identity, negative stereotypes, and social influence. This piece provides a nuanced discussion of the state of racial intolerance in the United States and empirically tests how racial priming impacts the support for the expression of civil liberties. A series of 6 experiments are conducted to isolate the relationship between race and tolerance, and each causal mechanism is specifically tested by leveraging heterogeneous treatment effect tests. The strength of white identity, the extent to which the respondent holds beliefs regarding negative stereotypes, and the racial heterogeneity of the respondent's extended social network are each gathered. These heterogeneous treatment effect tests are novel within this literature and contribute to our understanding of race, tolerance, identity, stereotyping, and socialization, as well as the interaction between these elements.  

Peer Reviewed Research: 

Hannah L. Paul & Courtney J. Nava. "Racialized Empathy and Attitudes Toward Refugees in the United States." Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (2025): 1-2. Read article here. 

Current research: 

Courtney J. Nava, Josalyn Williams, and A.E. Sokhey. "Political Tolerance within Mass Publics." Oxford Bibliographies. Forthcoming.

Courtney J. Nava. “Beyond Partisanship: How Stereotype Ascription Moderates Support for Black Gun Ownership.” Under review.

Courtney J. Nava. “Who Has the Right: The Mechanisms Underlying White Support for Black Protest.” Forthcoming.

Owen Fite and Courtney J. Nava. “Testing Respectability: The Effect of Racial Bias on Attitudes Toward Performative Citizenship.”

To be submitted.

I was a survey co-lead in 2020, 2021, and 2022 for the Colorado Political Climate Survey, which is done annually in October. Colleagues and I secured IRB approval, designed the survey, fielded and analyzed it, and created topline reports for media. 

Media Appearances: and empathy help explain why not all refugees are 

lRace and empathy help explain why not all refugees are welcomed equally, London School of Economics America Blog, July, 2025.
"Grin and Polar Bear It  feat. Courtney Nava," The Poli-Sigh Podcast, October 2020 (linked below)
"Is Mid a Term? feat. Courtney Nava," The Poli-Sigh Podcast, October 2022 (linked below)