I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. I study how political beliefs change, developing a theory of how beliefs are reshaped when individuals are forced to justify them in social interaction and showing how this process unfolds in real political discussion.

In my current research agenda, I develop and test this account across a set of linked projects that integrate theory, experimental design, and direct measurement of underlying mechanisms. This includes a working paper (under review) that introduces and tests the theory, a book project that extends it into a general account of belief formation and change, a methods paper that formalizes its measurement in conversational data, an original discussion experiment that provides the empirical foundation for this work, and ongoing projects that use large language model–assisted designs to experimentally vary and observe justificatory contexts at scale.

Broadly, I study how political representation along identity lines shapes behavior and attitudes, as well as the causes and consequences of discrimination and bias. In published and working papers, I examine how identities affect outcomes such as democratic legitimacy, ethnic conflict, discrimination-based welfare deficits, polarization, policymaking, labor market participation, vote choice, and political discourse.

My work is published or forthcoming in American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, Political Behavior, and Political Psychology.

At Pitt, I teach Political Psychology at both the undergraduate and PhD levels. I also teach undergraduate seminars on Identity in American Politics and Women in Politics, as well as advanced PhD methods courses on Causal Inference and Behavioral Experiments.