I am a PhD student at the University of Alberta in the Department of Political Science. My research interests focus on how our perceptions shape our politics. Specifically, I am interested in how populist attitudes come about, and how the vibrancy of our local economy shapes our politics. 

Some examples include the role of the Rust Belt in electing Donald J. Trump to office in the United States; Southern Regions of the United Kingdom in driving the BREXIT vote; and more recently burgeoning support for Germany's radical-AfD party in Germany's eastern regions. While others focus on the individual, or macroeconomic causes of these effects, I focus on the regional level, and the place-based factors that drive this change. In other words, what happens when a once prosperous region falls by the wayside? How does this impact our friends, families, neighbours, and their politics? How can regions /governments counteract the negative aspects of globalization to remain competitive in a changing spatial division of labour? 

However, this pertains mostly to my academic interests. Other areas of my research concerns public policy, behavioural economics, and game theory. Where I can, I try to take a quantitative approach in my research. 

Outside of work/academia I can be found in the Edmonton river valley hiking with my dog Ghost, in the gym, playing video games, or above all, spending time with my wife and virology prodigy: Maia.