As a researcher, I seek to understand the causes of political inequality in participation and representation, with a focus on the impact of social class. My experience and training in political psychology informs how I ask and answer these questions.

My research is motivated by my experiences, and that of my peers, growing up working class. I seek to understand how economic backgrounds affect political participation, representation, and democracy as a whole. Descriptively, my background grounds my research in a culture that is otherwise less represented in the academy, almost by definition.

My methodological training has emphasized quantitative social and experimental psychology, and many of my projects reflect this. However, my critical ontological orientation and post-positivist theoretical perspective necessitates a mixed-methods approach. I seek to understand these questions of class in a more theoretically “ground-up” way, recognizing the limitations of my own experiences. As such, my projects are skeptical of a top-down, academy-to-layperson hypothesis testing model. I structure my projects with the opportunity for a more democratically involved scientific process, rather than focusing on prescriptive theory testing.

My motivation to create a more ground-up theory informs my collaboration and mentorship. I often take the time to become involved in interdisciplinary groups and attend student research presentations on campus. I am involved in numerous formal (Political Attitudes and Cognition [PAC] Lab, EKSTROM Lab, Institutions Research Group, Research in Political Science [RiPS] brownbag) and informal research groups (a feedback group of historians and political scientists) on UNL’s campus.

I seek to be an involved member of a broader research community, regardless of any immediate perceived value to myself. Though, more often than not, I find that I learned something interesting and useful to myself. I have learned things by simply “showing up” as a collaborator, mentor, and community member that I would not have otherwise. I hope that I have aided my community through these actions, as they have certainly aided me.