Welcome

​I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. Previously, I was the Wick Cary Assistant Professor of Political Economy in the Department of International and Area Studies  at the University of Oklahoma and the Director of OU's African Studies Institute. I received my Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University in 2017, and in 2018-19 I was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. 

I study public opinion and political behavior in autocratic regimes, specifically in sub-Saharan Africa. My book, The Autocratic Voter: Partisanship and Political Socialization under Dictatorship,  presents an argument about the meaning of partisanship in electoral autocracies. Using the framework of social identity theory, it provides an answer to the question of why some people living in such regimes choose to support the ruling party, while others support the opposition, and others, still, stay out of politics altogether. My other work has been published at the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Politics, and Public Opinion Quarterly, amongst others.