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My research focuses on the politics of race, whiteness, and memory using both political theory and empirical methodologies. My current book project (under contract at NYU Press) is about the diverse ways enslaved people in the United States escaped slavery and how these different modes of fugitivity can speak to both fugitive theorizing in Black political thought and contemporary politics of resistance.

Through survey research, I also explore race and politics, racial attitudes, whiteness, and Confederate monuments in the United States. I am working on a book-length project coauthored with Emily Wager (Western Carolina University) on the political effects of Confederate monuments in the U.S. South.

My dissertation research drew on three case studies – representations of genocide in Rwanda, of chattel slavery in the United States, and of colonial violence in Australia – to explore how political societies choose to represent histories of violence in their physical landscape through monuments, memorials, and other representations.

I also research feminism and pop culture, with an article published in Hypatia about trauma disclosure and The Bachelorette and a book chapter published in the edited volume Taylor Swift and Philosophy, the latter of which intersects with my course on Taylor Swift and feminist political theory.

In the classroom, I am committed to using active learning techniques and close textual analysis to encourage critical citizenship and the application of political theory and political science to the “real world.” I utilize simulations, small group discussions, and other evidence-based practices to put learning in students’ hands. I teach courses in political theory, race and politics, and feminist theory. I also publish research on teaching and learning, specifically the effectiveness of simulations in the political science classroom.

I’m originally from Southwestern Virginia and my B.A. is from Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT). More information about my research and teaching is available in the links above.

Check out:

• My public writing on Memorial Day in the Washington Post’s political science research blog, The Monkey Cage
• A profile of my community-based learning class, Race and the Right to Vote in the United States
• An article that a former student wrote for my class and then published in the London School of Economics’ LSE Undergraduate Political Review
• An article about a lawsuit to which I submitted expert testimony