WELCOME

I am currently an Assistant Professor of Political Communication and Political Behavior in the Department of History & Political Science at Utah Valley University. During the 2023 calendar year, I am a Federalism Fellow at UVU’s Center for Constitutional Studies.

My research primarily centers on American politics, with emphases in civic engagement, political psychology, political communication, political geography, and electoral campaigns. I have also cultivated expertise in the politics of my home state, Montana, and of the Rocky Mountain West more broadly.

Topics of special interest to me that I have developed a research agenda around include geographic polarization (i.e., the urban-rural divide) and nationalization in American politics. I have begun exploring geographical divides in Britain and other European countries as well. I also have multiple projects relating to attitudes toward political violence in the U.S.

My peer-reviewed work has been published by or is forthcoming at Political Behavior, Political Geography, Political Research Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Prevention Science, American Politics Research, and Publius: The Journal of Federalism.

I have also contributed commentary and analysis to the Washington Post, The Hill, National Public Radio, Democracy Journal, Washington Monthly, The Niskanen Center, and The Brookings Institute, among other outlets.

Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Johns Hopkins University, a Presidential Predoctoral Fellow in Data Science at the Data Science Institute of the University of Virginia, member of Dr. Gerald Clore's Emotion and Cognition Lab, a fellow in the Quantitative Collaborative at UVa, and an editorial assistant at the American Journal of Political Science (methodology subfield). I earned my PhD from the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia in 2020, and earned my MA and BA in political science at the University of Montana.