Welcome! I'm an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kentucky.
My research is in the field of Comparative Politics with an emphasis on comparative legislatures, comparative political institutions, gender and politics, and Latin America. I employ both quantitative and qualitative research approaches to examine how institutions shape elite and mass political behavior. I completed my Ph.D. in Political Science at Rice University in 2012, where my dissertation won the John W. Garner Award for Best Dissertation in the Social Sciences and Humanities at Rice University.
In 2018 I was honored to receive the Emerging Scholar Award from the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association. This award was designed to recognize a scholar who is no more than 6 years from the year of their PhD who has informed the study of legislative politics through innovative and rigorous scholarship. In 2017 I was honored with the Early Career Award from the Midwest Women's Caucus for Political Science, an award that recognizes a junior (pre-tenure) female faculty member based upon her research accomplishments and contribution to the discipline. In 2013 I was a Research Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. I spent Spring 2019 at Tulane University as the Greenleaf Scholar-In-Residence in the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.
My new book, Women, Politics, and Power (with Pamela Paxton and Melanie Hughes) is forthcoming with Rowman and Littlefield in March 2020. Our book provides a detailed introduction to women’s political participation and representation across all branches of government and a wide range of countries and regions. Using broad statistical overviews and detailed case-study accounts, we document both historical trends and the contemporary state of women’s political strength across diverse countries. The text considers experiences of women from a range of marginalized groups, including racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; indigenous peoples; and those that face discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Readers will learn about cultural, structural, political, and international influences on women’s access to political power, about the old and new barriers women continue to face like violence, and about the difference women make once in political office. Dedicated chapters on six geographic regions highlight distinct influences and patterns in different parts of the world.
In 2017 my first book, Gendering Legislative Behavior: Institutional Constraints and Collaboration (Cambridge University Press, 2016), was awarded the Alan Rosenthal Prize for the best book or article written by a junior scholar that has potential to strengthening the practice of representative democracy, by the American Political Science Association Legislative Studies Section. In this book, I ask when and why do legislators—and particularly women legislators—have incentives to collaborate? And how do different legislative institutions facilitate or constrain women's legislative collaboration? To answer these questions, I spent over 20 months in Argentina, visited 19 of the country’s 24 provinces, and collected an original dataset that combines archival data (e.g., bill cosponsorship, leadership appointments, committee appointments, incumbency) and over 200 interviews with legislators and other elite political observers. My fieldwork was supported through research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Ora N. Arnold Fellowship, and the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences.
My other peer-reviewed research appears in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Governance, Politics & Gender and Politics, Groups, and Identities. In 2017 I won the Sophonisba Breckinridge Award from the Midwest Political Science Association for a paper co-authored with Abby Córdova. I was also awarded the best article published in Political Research Quarterly in 2017 and the Marian Irish Award in 2017 from the Southern Political Science Association for a paper I co-authored with Erin Cassese. Additionally, I have won over $580,000 in grants and fellowships to support my research.
I am also committed to the advancement of women and under-represented groups in the discipline. Together with Dawn Teele (University of Pennsylvania) and Amanda Clayton (Vanderbilt University) I founded a group
called The Empirical Study of Gender Research Network (EGEN). We are a group of scholars that work on gender from an empirical angle. I previously served as the president for the Midwest Women's Caucus. From 2012 to 2016, I was the newsletter editor for the Midwest Women's Caucus. The mission of the women's caucus is to promote professional equity for women in the discipline of political science. In the Spring of 2015, my colleague Emily Beaulieu and I hosted Visions in Methodology at the University of Kentucky. VIM is dedicated to supporting women who study political methodology. In Spring 2014, Emily Beaulieu, Yanna Krupnikov, and I conducted an impact assessment of the program for the Political Methodologist Newsletter. In the fall of 2014, I joined Ashley Leeds, Mike Alvarez, and Leslie Schwindt-Bayer in writing an Oxford University Press blog post on the importance of mentoring. In the summer of 2016 Leslie Schwindt-Bayer and I co-hosted the Women/Diversity Welcome Dinner at the 33rd annual meeting of the Society for Political Methodology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The dinner is intended to promote diverse representation at the Polmeth conference. At the University of Kentucky, I am an active member in WiPS (Women in Political Science), an association that provides female graduate students with information, support, mentorship, and advocacy here at UK. Follow us on twitter @kentuckyWIPS to learn more about women in political science at UK.
In 2018 I was honored to receive the Emerging Scholar Award from the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association. This award was designed to recognize a scholar who is no more than 6 years from the year of their PhD who has informed the study of legislative politics through innovative and rigorous scholarship. In 2017 I was honored with the Early Career Award from the Midwest Women's Caucus for Political Science, an award that recognizes a junior (pre-tenure) female faculty member based upon her research accomplishments and contribution to the discipline. In 2013 I was a Research Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. I spent Spring 2019 at Tulane University as the Greenleaf Scholar-In-Residence in the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.
My new book, Women, Politics, and Power (with Pamela Paxton and Melanie Hughes) is forthcoming with Rowman and Littlefield in March 2020. Our book provides a detailed introduction to women’s political participation and representation across all branches of government and a wide range of countries and regions. Using broad statistical overviews and detailed case-study accounts, we document both historical trends and the contemporary state of women’s political strength across diverse countries. The text considers experiences of women from a range of marginalized groups, including racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; indigenous peoples; and those that face discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Readers will learn about cultural, structural, political, and international influences on women’s access to political power, about the old and new barriers women continue to face like violence, and about the difference women make once in political office. Dedicated chapters on six geographic regions highlight distinct influences and patterns in different parts of the world.
In 2017 my first book, Gendering Legislative Behavior: Institutional Constraints and Collaboration (Cambridge University Press, 2016), was awarded the Alan Rosenthal Prize for the best book or article written by a junior scholar that has potential to strengthening the practice of representative democracy, by the American Political Science Association Legislative Studies Section. In this book, I ask when and why do legislators—and particularly women legislators—have incentives to collaborate? And how do different legislative institutions facilitate or constrain women's legislative collaboration? To answer these questions, I spent over 20 months in Argentina, visited 19 of the country’s 24 provinces, and collected an original dataset that combines archival data (e.g., bill cosponsorship, leadership appointments, committee appointments, incumbency) and over 200 interviews with legislators and other elite political observers. My fieldwork was supported through research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Ora N. Arnold Fellowship, and the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences.
My other peer-reviewed research appears in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Governance, Politics & Gender and Politics, Groups, and Identities. In 2017 I won the Sophonisba Breckinridge Award from the Midwest Political Science Association for a paper co-authored with Abby Córdova. I was also awarded the best article published in Political Research Quarterly in 2017 and the Marian Irish Award in 2017 from the Southern Political Science Association for a paper I co-authored with Erin Cassese. Additionally, I have won over $580,000 in grants and fellowships to support my research.
I am also committed to the advancement of women and under-represented groups in the discipline. Together with Dawn Teele (University of Pennsylvania) and Amanda Clayton (Vanderbilt University) I founded a group
called The Empirical Study of Gender Research Network (EGEN). We are a group of scholars that work on gender from an empirical angle. I previously served as the president for the Midwest Women's Caucus. From 2012 to 2016, I was the newsletter editor for the Midwest Women's Caucus. The mission of the women's caucus is to promote professional equity for women in the discipline of political science. In the Spring of 2015, my colleague Emily Beaulieu and I hosted Visions in Methodology at the University of Kentucky. VIM is dedicated to supporting women who study political methodology. In Spring 2014, Emily Beaulieu, Yanna Krupnikov, and I conducted an impact assessment of the program for the Political Methodologist Newsletter. In the fall of 2014, I joined Ashley Leeds, Mike Alvarez, and Leslie Schwindt-Bayer in writing an Oxford University Press blog post on the importance of mentoring. In the summer of 2016 Leslie Schwindt-Bayer and I co-hosted the Women/Diversity Welcome Dinner at the 33rd annual meeting of the Society for Political Methodology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The dinner is intended to promote diverse representation at the Polmeth conference. At the University of Kentucky, I am an active member in WiPS (Women in Political Science), an association that provides female graduate students with information, support, mentorship, and advocacy here at UK. Follow us on twitter @kentuckyWIPS to learn more about women in political science at UK.
