Chair and Ephraim Williams Professor of Political Science
Education
Ph.D. The University of Texas
Areas of Expertise
My research interests are in the field of American political development. Currently, I’m working on a project on eugenics, national identity, and state building at the beginning of the twentieth century, tentatively titled, How White Ethnics Got Themselves a New Deal: Nation Building and the Interventionist State, 1900 to 1940.
Courses
PSCI 158 SEM
Power to the People? (not offered 2024/25)PSCI 206 / LEAD 206 TUT
Dangerous Leadership in American Politics (not offered 2024/25)PSCI 218 / LEAD 218 SEM
The American Presidency (not offered 2024/25)PSCI 307 TUT
American National Identity and State Power (not offered 2024/25)PSCI 308 SEM
In Search of the American State (not offered 2024/25)PSCI 412 SEM
Senior Seminar: Interpretations of American Politics (not offered 2024/25)Scholarship/Creative Work
Books/Longer Projects:
Polity Symposium on The Challenges Facing Democrats, co-edited with Rogers Smith, 52:3 (July 2020).
Legacies of Losing in American Politics, with Jeffrey K. Tulis, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018).
The State of Disunion: Regional Sources of Modern American Partisanship (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
Articles:
“Voting: Stabilizing Democracy—Or Rehearsing a Realignment,” with Candis Watts Smith in The Elections of 2020, Michael Nelson, ed., (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021).
“An Identity Crisis for the Democrats?” in Polity Symposium on the Challenges Facing Democrats, Nicole Mellow and Rogers Smith, eds., 52:3 (July 2020).
“Continuity and Confusion in the Electorate,” in The Elections of 2016, Michael Nelson, ed., (Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2017).
“The Democratic Fit: Party Reform and the Eugenics Tool,” in The Progressives’ Century, Bruce Ackerman, Stephen Skowronek, and Stephen Engel, eds., (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016).
“The Anti-Federal Appropriation,” with Jeffrey K. Tulis, American Political Thought. 3:1 (Spring 2014).
“How the Democrats Rejuvenated Their Coalition,” in The Elections of 2012, Michael Nelson, ed., (Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2013).
“Foreign Policy, Bipartisanship, and the Paradox of Post-September 11 America,” with Peter Trubowitz, International Politics. 48:2/3 (2011): 164-187.
“Mapping ambivalence in American politics: a view from political science,” Political Geography. 28:6 (2009): 332-342.
“A Blue Nation?” in The Elections of 2008, Michael Nelson, ed., (Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2009).
“The Rhetorical Presidency and the Partisan Echo Chamber,” Critical Review. 19:2-3 (2007): 367-378.
“Andrew Johnson and the Politics of Failure,” with Jeffrey K. Tulis, in Formative Acts: Reckoning with Agency in American Politics, Steven Skowronek and Matt Glassman, eds. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).
“The Election of 2004 and the Roots of Republican Success,” in The Elections of 2004, Michael Nelson, ed. (Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2005).
“Going Bipartisan: Politics by Other Means,” with Peter Trubowitz, Political Science Quarterly. 120:3 (Fall 2005) : 433-453.
“Red Versus Blue: American Electoral Geography and Congressional Bipartisanship, 1898-2002,” with Peter Trubowitz, Political Geography. 24 (2005) : 659-677.
“The State of Gender Studies in Political Science,” with Gretchen Ritter, The Annals of the American Academy in Political and Social Science. 571 (September 2000) : 121-134
Current Committees
- Faculty Steering Committee, Chair, Spring