I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. In the fall I will join the faculty of the Princeton Politics department as an assistant professor. My main research area is judicial politics, but I have broad interests in the study of American politics. My dissertation, "Hierarchical and Collegial Politics on the U.S. Courts of Appeals," analyzes the dynamics of collegial decision making on three-judge panels of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, with a particular focus on how the judicial hierarchy interacts with collegiality to influence individual judicial voting. I also have research interests in political methodology and formal theory, and have done research on congressional elections, public opinion and Supreme Court nominations. Along with Jeff Lax and Justin Phillips, I am working on a series of papers that investigates the relationship between public opinion on senatorial roll call voting on Supreme Court nominees.
contact info
Columbia University
Department of Political Science
420 W. 118th St.
New York, NY 10027
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
- The Statistical Analysis of Judicial Decisions and Legal Rules with Classification Trees, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, forthcoming.
- Panel Composition and Judicial Compliance on the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 2007. Journal of Law, Economics & Organization. 23(2): 421-41.
- Using Graphs Instead of Tables in Political Science, with Eduardo Leoni. 2007. Perspectives on Politics. 5(4): 755-71.
- Predicting and Dissecting the Seats-Votes Curve in the 2006 U.S. House Election, with Andrew Gelman and Jamie Chandler. 2008. PS: Political Science and Politics. 41(1):139-145.
- Case Selection and the Study of Judicial Politics, with Jeffrey Lax. 2008. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. 5(3): 407-446.
- The Playing Field Shifts: Predicting the Seats-Votes Curve in the 2008 U.S. House Election, with Andrew Gelman and Jamie Chandler. 2008. PS: Political Science and Politics.41(4):729-32.
Working Papers
- My SSRN webpage
- Hierarchical and Collegial Politics on the U.S. Courts of Appeals (under review), Winner of the Law & Courts Section's 2009 Best Graduate Student Paper Award
- Public Opinion and Senate Confirmation of Supreme Court Nominees, with Jeffrey Lax and Justin Phillips
- Panel Composition and Voting on the United States Courts of Appeals (under revise and resubmit at Political Research Quarterly)