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Rethinking Competent Citizenship

This line of research revisits foundational concepts in political behavior—including political competence, political knowledge, and political discussion—by examining how citizens understand politics through welfare, criminal justice, and bureaucratic institutions. Across this work, I show how conventional concepts obscure political expertise among women, racial, and sexual minorities. 

Publications and projects:

• Defensive Citizens: Political Competence in an Unequal State (Book project)
• "Closing the Gap: Gender, Race, and Welfare State Knowledge" (Forthcoming at Perspectives on Politics); ​Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women & Politics​
• "Compound Marginalization: Race, Gender, and Political Knowledge" (Conditionally accepted at Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics)
• "Beyond the Knowledge Gap: Gender and Political Knowledge Confidence" (R&R at Perspectives on Politics)
• "Do Gender Gaps in Political Knowledge Generalize Across Policy Domains? Evidence from the UK" (R&R at Public Opinion Quarterly)​
• "The “Content” of Intergroup Contact" (Politics, Groups, and Identities, 2025)
• "Carceral Political Discussion: Talking Politics Across Domains of the State" (Under review); Paul Lazarsfeld Award for Best Paper, APSA Political Communication Section​​​ 

       

          

Immigration, Minorities, and Political Narratives

​This line of research examines how political narratives shape attitudes toward immigrants and racial minorities. Across these projects, I study how citizens interpret immigration and social change, and how alternative narratives can reinforce or reduce prejudice and social conflict.

Publications and projects:

• "Close Race: Harnessing Multiracialism to Reduce Prejudice" (Political Behavior, 2026); Best Paper Award, APSA Political Psychology Section 
• "How Police Behavior Shapes Perceptions of Protests" with Ariel White and Laurel Eckhouse (Perspectives on Politics, 2025)
• "Family History and Immigration Attitudes" with Cesar Vargas Nunez (In progress)​ ​

              

             

Concept Development and Mixed Methods

Across both lines of research, I write about and develop approaches and measures that aim to better capture political behavior and political experience. This work engages mixed methods research, concept development, and interpretive methodology.

Publications and projects:

• "The Politics of Sight: Revisiting Timothy Pachirat’s Every Twelve Seconds" with Bernardo Zacka (American Political Science Review, 2022); Kendra Koivu Award for Best Paper, APSA Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Section
• "Listening Before Measuring: A Mixed Method Approach to Conceptual Undercoverage in Surveys" (Under review)
• "Combining Interpretivist & Positivist Approaches to Social Science Research" with Richard Nielsen (Working paper)
• "The Fundamental Problem of Interpretive Inference" with Richard Nielsen (Working paper)
• "Concepts for Whom? The Case for Conceptual Perspectivalism" (In progress)​

                         

                            

Workshops & Networks

I co-organize the Southwest Workshop on Mixed Methods Research (SWMMR) and the SLAC American Politics Workshop (with Sonya Chen at Barnard). Both provide opportunities for scholars to present work in progress, receive constructive feedback, and build collaborations across institutions. Please get in touch if you'd like to learn more or get involved.