Welcome

I'm an Assistant Professor at Duke Kunshan University, where I teach political science and public policy, mentor undergraduate Signature Work projects, and strive to improve the DKU curriculum. I also direct the Global Elections Lab and serve as a faculty affiliate at DKU's Center for the Study of Contemporary China. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University in 2020. 

My research examines the effects of political institutions through three central questions:

1. How do institutions shape responsiveness and representation? If institutions structure behavior, then different institutions can induce different behavior from voters and legislators. My research considers how institutional arrangements affect the racial, gender, partisan, and ideological makeup of legislative bodies, as well as the incentives legislators face to be responsive to their constituents. So far, this work has spanned four contexts: the Vietnamese National Assembly, China's local People's Congresses, North Carolina's county governments, and America's state and federal legislatures.

2. How can nominally democratic institutions be manipulated or repurposed to serve nondemocratic goals? Although political institutions are typically erected to solve particular social dilemmas, such as temptations to free ride, many institutions are multipurpose: their functions can vary greatly depending on political context. I consider how electoral institutions like vetting procedures and ballot printing laws can be harnessed to restrict competition and ensure one-party dominance. With Minh Trinh, I examine authoritarian elections across the globe, including Putin's Russia, theocratic Iran, mid-century Brazil, America's former Solid South, and contemporary Myanmar.

3. How can social scientists use knowledge of institutions to produce better measures of fundamental concepts? Because institutions generate regular patterns of behavior, knowledge of institutional arrangements can facilitate quantification of social scientific concepts such as prestige, coordination, and interdisciplinarity. My efforts here involve novel applications of network science, diversity indices, and text-as-data approaches in contexts like the United States, Scotland, Russia, and China.

Throughout my research, I employ a broad array of methodological approaches, including text-as-data, networks, econometrics, simulation studies, field and survey experiments, and archival work. You can find my research in the pages of the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, and Electoral Studies.

To learn more about my work —  and me —  please check out the rest of the site using the menu at the top of the page.