Personal profile

Personal profile

My focus is on understanding and addressing the way certainty drives our tendency to judge harshly, demonize, and dismiss people who disagree. We often think of this as a problem of political polarization, a lack of civil discourse, or a lack of viewpoint diversity. Where those are actually the downstream effects of a fundamental problem in how we think. 

In addition to my role as an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, I am the co-director of the Mill Institute at UATX. At the Mill Institute, we work with educators to create classroom spaces where they can challenge settled thinking and explore contentious topics together. 

My work includes:

Research Interests

Viewpoint diversity

Political polarization

Education

PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2005

Teaching

SOC 230, Sociology of Political Polarization: Bigots and Snowflakes
SOC 163, Social Problems
SOC 280, Introduction to Social Statistics


Office Address

326 Lincoln Hall MC-454
702 South Wright Street

Office Phone

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