I am a professor of Political Science at North Carolina State University
in Raleigh, NC. My research interests are in psychological approaches to
voting behavior, partisanship, and public opinion, especially with regards
to gender differences, abortion, and the impact of parenthood.
I spent my first eighteen years in Springfield, Virginia, about 20 miles
south of Washington, DC. I missed growing up "inside the beltway" by about
a mile, but I was close enough to have a great fascination with politics
and end up studying them for a living. I have an older brother and older
sister as well as two younger sisters. I graduated from West Springfield
High School in 1990. I spent the next four years at Duke University. I
majored in Political Science and History. Then it was off to Columbus,
Ohio and the PhD program in Political Science at Ohio State.
My first job was a one-year position at Oberlin College in 1999-2000,
where my son David was born. Then off to Lubbock, Texas, for two years as
an assistant professor at Texas Tech. Alex was born there and will forever
be a native Texan.
I've been at NC State and living in Cary, NC since 2002. My son Evan was
born in Cary in 2006. And my daughter Sarah came along in 2010 -- at some
point we decided three red-haired boys was not enough and mixed things up
with a non-redhead, non-boy.
I like to do a lot of things besides study political science; I enjoy
jogging, reading, playing guitar and piano, photography, and nature
(especially birds). I coached a ton of soccer seasons and absolutely loved
it; these days I referee instead. When time allows, I really enjoy reading
about things other than politics (check out my recommendations -- I
stopped updating a long time ago, alas, but still some good ones here).
I'm also a huge fan of great TV -- Seinfeld, Sopranos, The Wire, and Mad
Men are some of my favorites (I watch new shows, too). I'm also a
complete podcast junkie and listen to several a day. My favorites
are Fresh Air, This American Life, Radiolab, Ezra Klein.