American Politics
Political Behavior
Political Psychology
Chronobiology and Politics
Genetics and Politics
Implicit Cognitive Processes and Politics
Physiology and Politics

My research expands on core theories of American politics and political psychology by integrating insights drawn from behavioral genetic, implicit social cognition, and chronobiological research. My genetic research examines the role of genes in political ideology, interest in politics, and political participation. These studies also shed light on the relationships between politics and other phenomena such as religiosity, Big Five personality traits, and cognitive styles.

My second stream of research uses methods from the study of implicit social cognition to develop new insights into a diverse set of political attributes and outcomes, including candidate traits evaluations, vote choice, political knowledge, racial attitudes, and immigration policy attitudes. These studies use multiple research designs (large-N panel studies, experiments), various measurement techniques (surveys, priming, latency-based measures), and diverse samples (student in lab, non-student by mail, online via Amazon Mechanical Turk). I have highlighted the importance of implicit research for political science as editor of a symposium in PS: Political Science and Politics.

My newest stream of research considers the intersection of chronobiology and politics. I examine how differences in sleep preferences are related to differences in political attitudes, in media consumption patterns and political knowledge, and in interest and participation in politics, among other outcomes. I am also interested in how society and the political system structure time and privilege particular temporal patterns, as well as the extent to which individuals endorse the social organization of time (chrononormativity).

Ph.D. Rice University, 2015
MA Rice University, 2011
MA University of Chicago, 2008
BA (Honours) University of Alberta, 2007

Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Award, UIUC College of LAS, 2018-2020
Award for Excellence in Graduate Education, UIUC Department of Political Science, 2017-2018

PS 100 - Introduction to Political Science
PS 314 - Political Psychology
PS 328 - Introduction to Biology and Politics
PS 330 - Introduction to Political Behavior
PS 492 - Undergraduate Research Assistance
PS 519 - Biology and Politics

304C David Kinley Hall