Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University. I study American Politics through the lens of political psychology, in particular focusing on the role partisanship plays in shaping voters’ attitudes and behaviors, even to the extent it can be harmful to democracy as a whole.

I completed my Ph.D. in Political Science (2025) at the University of California, Irvine and my M.A. in General Experimental Psychology (2015) at California State University, Northridge. I was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Central Arkansas.

My research focuses on political psychology and American political behavior, mainly using survey methods. My main project looks at the use of constitutional hardball—legal acts that still violate democratic norms—and how it impacts democratic health. I find that partisan cues and elite messages shape support for hardball. I also find that in highly polarized environments utilizing pro-democratic hardball may be the best way to reverse democratic backsliding.

I am also examining voters' level of support for candidates who call for political violence. I aim to better understand the political incentives for politicians to engage in such rhetoric or not, and what impact calls for violence have on broader political norms. Finally, I also conduct more methods-focused research on the relationship between affective polarization and anti-democratic attitudes, finding a non-linear and non-monotonic relationship that researchers may need to account for.