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I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Villanova University. My research interests lie at the intersection of political psychology and racial and ethnic politics. Within these fields, I examine questions pertaining to Black-White relations in American politics, Black affective experiences in politics, and intersectionality.

My current book project titled, Fired Up, Ready to Go: Pride, Shame, and Anger in Black Politics, examines how emotions tied to one’s racial group identity shapes public opinion and political decision-making. Drawing on a wide range of data (such as surveys, focus group studies, and five original survey experiments) from 1979 through 2021, I show that the politics of Black Americans have a collective affective component that is associated with and causes direct changes to their politics. My aim in Fired Up, is to begin shifting the narrative about the Black political experience in America. It is not solely cognition or racial group consciousness that drives the political decision-making of Black people; it is also how they feel as members of their racial group. This book will provide a new lens through which scholars can both view and more thoroughly understand the politics of Black Americans and groups broadly construed. Fired Up, Ready to Go is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

My published research can be found in The Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Research & Politics, and Politics, Groups, and Identities. Please feel free to visit my research page for links to these publications and drafts of working papers that are currently under review.