Bio
I am an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado in Boulder. As an undergraduate, I was a German major and Spanish minor and spent my junior year at the University of Siegen, in Germany. After graduating, I spent a year in Venezuela on the Margarita Island; I have also lived in Spain. Most of my teaching focuses on judicial politics and political methodology, but I also teach Political Behavior at the graduate level. I have three sets of twins, which include four cats.
Summary of research
Much of my research has to do with the perceptions of fairness and legitimacy of courts and law. My article, “On the Legitimacy of National High Courts,” with James L. Gibson and Gregory Caldeira was published in the American Political Science Review, receiving a Lasting Contribution Award from the Law and Courts section of the American political Science Association in 2021.
Some of my work focuses on how interest groups help the Supreme Court amass judicial power. My book on this subject is called, Answering the Call of the Court: How Justices and Litigants Set the Supreme Court Agenda. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. I am currently working on a paper with an undergraduate student on measuring Supreme Court ideology across policy areas and time. I also have a working paper called, “Why the Supreme Court Cannot Make Liberal Economic Policy,” that uses this measure.
Because my Supreme Court research finds that much of the Supreme Court’s agenda depends on people seeking redress of their grievances, I have sought to understand what makes people perceive they have a grievance or decide to take action based on that grievance. I have done work on this subject both in and outside of the U.S. context. My most recent article on this subject is with Professor Jennifer Wolak (Michigan State), published in American Politics Research, entitled, “Why Some Blame Politics for Their Personal Problems.” According to an algorithm created by Altmetrics, this paper is the 20th most influential Political Science article published in 2021 (out of 197590 papers). SuchScience published a summary of this article.
My most current work focuses on understanding the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the rule of law, and the determinants of support for political violence, both in the U.S., and abroad.
I am also currently testing the effectiveness of a novel approach to teaching critical thinking: TILES: Teaching Students to Identify Logical Errors Systematically.