Welcome! I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. I am the recipient of the UC Davis Office of Graduate Studies Dissertation Year Fellowship for the 2008-2009 academic year. I am currently finishing my dissertation as a Visiting Student Researcher at the California Institute of Technology. I expect to defend my dissertation by June 2009.

My research and teaching interests include a broad array of issues in comparative politics and institutions (both in developed and developing democracies), as well as political methodology. My dissertation analyzes political parties' policy changes in response to public opinion shifts in twenty-four democracies, with a focus on Western Europe. The first chapter of my dissertation, "Timely Decisions: The Effects of Past National Elections on Party Policy" is currently forthcoming in the Journal of Politics.

I spent the summer of 2008 in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands conducting elite interviews with political party officials for my dissertation. Meanwhile, I also completed an original expert survey with political party experts in twenty-four established democracies.

My research outside of my dissertation examines how political party policy changes affect public opinion, election outcomes, cabinet formation and duration, and party leadership survival in both Western and Eastern and Central European democracies. You can access my published and forthcoming projects in Comparative Politics, British Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics under "Research."

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Research

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