Course Preps
Political Behavior
This course offers a survey of American political behavior. Why are some people Republicans and some Democrats? Which groups care about which types of issues, and why? How much – or little – do people know about politics? What effects does political media have on voters? What should representation look like? We will study this behavior on multiple levels: individual political preferences, group dynamics, and the relationships each have to political elites and public servants. Topics to be covered include the history of public opinion and common methods in the field; origins of partisanship and ideology; political consequences of group identities based on partisanship, as well as race, immigration status, gender and sexuality, region, and religion; the impact of emotions on political opinions; various modes of political participation; sources and pitfalls of political knowledge; the relationship between the media and campaigns, elections, & representation. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of the core items impacting citizens’ political opinions, attitudes, and actions, and the associated outcomes.
The American Presidency
This course offers a survey of the American presidency. While we will study past presidents, this is not merely a class on “great men.” This semester we will cover the office of the presidency, the formal and informal powers vested in this office, how those powers have evolved, and the people who have used them. We will move chronologically through time, beginning with the founding and ending with the current office holder. In each administration, we will survey the major issues of the time and how presidents are both empowered and restrained by their position. Each president (or group of presidents) will serve as a case study for one of the larger questions facing the executive branch, and anchor understanding for how these questions continue to arise in new presidential eras. We will end the semester with discussions of the current problems facing the American presidency and their possible solutions. Presidential studies touch all areas of the discipline: domestic and international affairs; behavior of both presidents themselves, other governing actors, and the citizens that vote for them; structural features of the office itself and the institutions it interacts with; and the myriad of methods used to study these items, including qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical research. Students in this course will gain knowledge in each of these areas and emerge with greater understanding of both the presidency and the diverse field of political science.
Research Methods & Design
This course introduces students to the process of conducting research within political science. It features three units: research design, quantitative methods, and qualitative methods. While each of these topics could stand alone as a semester-long class, this survey course provides a foundation of knowledge and practical experience in each area. Young scholars will leave this course with an understanding of basic concepts within social science, experience in data collection, elementary coding, and practice conducting qualitative research. This course will not feature traditional exams; rather, over the course of the semester, students will complete a research project utilizing their new skills. The final paper will include a quantitative section using regression analysis and a qualitative section with proposed funding for case studies.
While rigorous, this class is designed to be introductory. Students with no experience are most welcome; students with more research familiarity are invited to join and broaden their skills. Moreover, while this course will require students to use statistics, this is not a math course. I repeat: you will be doing no math. Rather, students will become familiar with basic statistical programming (using Stata) to conduct quantitative research with a low barrier to entry. Most class meetings will not require students to complete readings; lectures will cover classic works in political science that demonstrate various research methods. To prepare for each class meeting, students will complete a short assignment (“piece of the paper,” or POP) based on the content of the previous class. Students should review the material and think about how it applies to their own topic of interest, completing each POP before the next class. The process of conducting – and writing up – research is iterative. These near-daily assignments will prepare students for this iteration, and break the final project into components crafted over several months.
Teaching Assistantships
Introduction to Political Theory
University of Virginia, Spring 2026
The American Supreme Court
University of Virginia, Spring 2025
University of Virginia, Fall 2023
Presidential Power
University of Virginia, Fall 2024
International Relations of East Asia
University of Virginia, Spring 2024
American Congress
University of Virginia, Spring 2023
Mass Media & Communications
University of Virginia, Fall 2022
Scope & Methods of Political Science
Baylor University, Summer 2021
Baylor University, Summer 2020
Campaigns & Elections
Baylor University, Fall 2020
Baylor University, Spring 2020
The US Constitution, Its Interpretation, & the American Political Experience
Baylor University, Fall 2020