I am an Associate Professor of Political Science at Duke University. I currently serve as the department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies and am an Associate Editor for Political Behavior.

My research examines how everyday Americans try to influence the political world. In The Obligation Mosaic, I show how different racial communities develop norms of political participation. The book received the Juliette and Alexander L. George Outstanding Political Psychology Book Award from the International Society of Political Psychology. Other works on the criminal legal system, social movements, and political socialization appear in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and British Journal of Political Science.  

My current scholarship investigates how parents and schools introduce children to racial politics—and if historical and present-day social movements shape these choices. Read the opening chapter of this new book here.

I graduated with honors from William & Mary in 2009 with a double major in American Studies and Government, and in 2016 from Stanford University with a PhD in Political Science. I have taught courses on American democracy to middle school and high school students; to inmates at San Quentin Prison; at a rehabilitation center in Redwood City, CA; and to undergraduate and graduate students at Vanderbilt and Duke University. Before graduate school, I was the Ameri*Corps VISTA for Community Engagement and Scholarship in William & Mary’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement.