The upcoming year will be my 9th in higher education. Before entering graduate school, I worked in college admissions, which is largely what inspired me to pursue a PhD.

The role that impacted me the most was at Earlham College, a small, Quaker-affiliated school in Richmond, Indiana. At Earlham, owing to the Quaker testimonies of equality and community, everyone employed by the college is considered “faculty.” So, at 22, I was attending faculty meetings that would typically be limited to professors. This gave me the unique chance to observe institutional life up-close, and the tight nature of the college’s community led me to befriend several junior faculty as well. The strong sense of purpose they brought to their work was what initially led me to consider academia as a possibility.

In the years since, I have become passionate about my research interests, and have experienced some of the joys of teaching firsthand.

My early work in graduate school was on ideology and agenda-setting, and much of this is now published or in-press. I currently focus on intergroup relations in US politics and policy. In my dissertation, I present an original dataset that measures levels of polarization in over 6,600 towns and cities. The data show that some communities are far more polarized than others, and my chapters explore the causes and consequences of these high-animosity environments. My focus on intergroup relations also extends to race and politics. A paper with Ray Block studies how Black citizens respond to different social contexts, and a project with colleagues at the RAND Corporation (where I am an adjunct researcher) studies how police departments respond to protests for social justice.

I have also taught two courses at Penn State, on elections and research design, respectively. Both courses were original course designs, and were well-received by students. I am eager to expand my teaching portfolio further, and you can read more about my teaching philosophy and potential course offerings on my teaching page.

I am originally from Connecticut and my undergraduate degree is from Vassar College. In addition to my role at Earlham, I worked as an enrollment analyst at Drexel University before entering graduate school. My wife/bff Maxélle and I live in Philadelphia. In my free time, I like to watch sports and foreign movies.