About Me
Hello! I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Faculty Affiliate of the Albright Institute at Wellesley College.
My research focuses on the unique features of the American political economy and how those features are shaped by Black politics and, in turn, how these features shape Black life. I am specifically interested in the ways that policy goals that can largely be considered civic successes for African American communities often invert on themselves, creating new conditions that often exacerbate racial inequalities even as they endeavor to help reduce them.
My first book project, tentatively titled The Last Best Hope: Black Congressional Representation and the Elusive Search for Racial Justice, focuses on the ways that even as Black Members of Congress have an increasingly central role to play in the governance of the Democratic Party, they are also faced with even more intensive constraints as polarization and gridlock shape the fortunes of racial justice legislation and action in the American Congress.
I have had work published on this topic and others at academic venues such as Politics, Groups, and Identities, Sociological Forum, and Polity.
At Wellesley, I teach courses in American Politics such as Intro to American Politics; A Seat at the Table? Race and Representation in American Political Institutions; American Political Economy; Black Politics; and When Am I Going to Make A Living? The Political Economy of Career Selection.
My work has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the UC Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies Fellowship, the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies, and American Political Science Association’s Diversity Fellowship Program.
I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2024. I graduated from Wesleyan University in 2015 with a double major in Government and African American Studies (with Honors).
Feel free to drop me a line to connect about areas in my research agenda I might be of assistance on.