Teaching
Current Courses
POL 3085: Quantitative Methods for Political Science
Fall 2026 (draft syllabus; subject to change)
This course introduces students to quantitative research methods in political science. Students will learn how political scientists develop theories, formulate testable hypotheses, collect and analyze data, and draw inferences about the political world. The course covers both experimental and observational research designs, with hands-on experience using the R statistical programming language.
POL 8307: Proseminar in Political Psychology [Graduate]
Fall 2026 (syllabus still being finalized; check back soon)
A graduate proseminar in political psychology, organized around weekly presentations from current graduate students, faculty, and outside speakers on their own in-progress research. Recent iterations have centered on a shared departmental research project — this fall’s seminar tracks the CSPP 2026 Election Panel Study through its data collection and analysis.
Past Courses
Undergraduate Courses
POL 1001: American Democracy in a Changing World
Why doesn’t Congress seem to work? Why do we let nine unelected judges decide which laws are unconstitutional and which ones are not? How could anyone have voted for <insert the Presidential candidate you didn’t vote for here>? This course will introduce students to politics in the United States, addressing these and many more questions about how the American political system works.
POL 3766: The Political Psychology of Mass Behavior
How do people develop their political opinions? What makes people vote the way that they do? Why do some people love, and others loathe, Donald Trump? Understanding how ordinary citizens engage with the political sphere is essential to understanding how politics work. This course applies a psychological approach to understanding how average people – members of the mass public – think about politics, make political decisions, and decide how (and whether) to take political actions.
POL 3767: The Political Psychology of Elite Behavior
Why do some countries cooperate while others go to war? How do leaders’ personalities shape how they behave in office? This course explores the psychology of political elites — the small set of people who wield outsized influence over political decisions — using a range of psychological theories, applied to some of the biggest (and most disastrous) elite decisions in recent history.
POL 3108H: Thesis Preparation and Political Science Inquiry (Honors Tutorial)
This Honors Tutorial helps students prepare to write their senior theses. Unlike most political science classes, which focus on mastering existing knowledge, the senior thesis requires an original contribution — this course builds those research skills. Students leave with a clear research question, a literature review, and a research design.
Graduate Courses
POL 8160: Causal Inference and Experimental Methods [Graduate]
Why are experiments useful for making causal inferences about the social world? This graduate course explores the statistical basis for randomized experiments, building from the potential-outcomes framework to practical issues of sampling, treatment design, and statistical power.