A
Dissertation
Discrimination and Government Responsiveness
Fieldwork and experiments examine when marginalized communities are recognized as legitimate claimants, and how inequality accumulates at each stage of the governing process.
Government at UT Austin
How do human needs become government action?
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Government at the University of Texas at Austin. My research examines government responsiveness, discrimination, migration, and political participation through field experiments, survey experiments, and qualitative research.
Government responsiveness
Discrimination
Local governance
Immigration and refugees
Experiments
01
Research agenda
Institutions are only responsive when needs can travel through them.
My dissertation develops a transmission framework for understanding local government responsiveness. It asks who receives a response, whose needs are treated as legitimate, and how bias shapes requests as they move through political and administrative channels. I use fieldwork and experiments to identify what can reduce discrimination and make government more responsive.
Read my research statementB
Field and audit experiments
Who receives a response?
Projects test whether advocate identity, race, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, language, and national origin shape the presence and quality of assistance.
C
Civic partnerships
Learning to Participate
A collaboration with Ladies Let's Talk studies whether conversation-based English instruction can reduce barriers to public services and civic engagement.
02
Selected writing
Publications and working papers
Toward Simulating Networked Societies with Formal Institutions Using AI Agents
With Michael Richards, Daniel Nielson, and Jacob W. Crandall
Home is Where the Bias Is
Fieldwork and a field experiment on bias in refugee housing. Presented at MPSA 2025.
Please Answer My Question
A field experiment on government discrimination based on citizen characteristics. Presented at APSA 2024.
Who's Asking?
Co-ethnicity and co-nationality in helping strangers, with field experiments in Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda. Presented at APSA 2025.
03
Teaching and mentorship
Research is a practice students learn by doing.
I work to make the classroom a space for creation, collaboration, constructive criticism, and clear facilitation. Students build confidence by asking questions, testing ideas, and conducting original research.
Read the teaching statement04
Experience and education
Academic research grounded in public problems.
Roles and fellowships
2021 - Present
Development Manager and Research Team Lead
Innovations for Peace and Development Lab
2026
Research Fellow
Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies
2025
Institute for Civically Engaged Research Fellow
American Political Science Association
2021 - Present
Research Fellowship Recipient
Innovations for Peace and Development
2018 - 2021
Director of Data Science
Y2 Analytics
Education
Expected 2027
Ph.D. in Government
The University of Texas at Austin
2024
M.A. in Government
The University of Texas at Austin
2018
M.A. in International Relations
University of Wisconsin-Madison
2017
B.A. in Political Science
Brigham Young University
05
Beyond the office
Building, barracking, and finding the next trail.
I am a lifelong nerd, an enthusiastic traveler, and the kind of person who is happiest when there is a puzzle to solve or somewhere new to explore.
Always barracking for Hawthorn,
Tottenham, and the WarGulls.
06
For my students
Good research starts with a question worth chasing.
In Applied Research Methods, students move from an idea to an original research project. They learn to build an argument, make careful choices about evidence, work through imperfect data, and explain what they find.
Selected work is shared here with permission from the students.
A Texan VRA Claim: Race, Party, and Maps Covered in Salamanders
An original analysis of Texas redistricting that uses ecological inference and simulated district maps to examine racial vote dilution under the Voting Rights Act.
Footing the Bill: Evaluating the Influence of Private Prison Corporations on Incarceration Policy Agendas
A bill-level study of whether lobbying and campaign contributions by major private prison corporations are associated with the success of incarceration-related legislation.
Lonely by Design: How Third Space Type Shapes Social Behavior and Isolation Levels
A survey-based study of how physical and perceived access to third spaces shapes weak-tie loneliness, social connection, and civic life.
Corruption and Emigration
A cross-national study using corruption, economic, and migration data to examine how governance failures and the misallocation of public funds shape emigration.
Eating Out, Opening Up? Culinary Engagement and Attitudes Toward Immigration in Austin, Texas
An original survey study of whether engagement with diverse cuisines can function as symbolic intergroup contact and help explain warmer attitudes toward immigrants.
Keep building
Former student with a project to share?
If you took a course with me and want to revise, publish, or feature your work here, I would love to hear from you.
Send me your projectLet's connect