Teaching
My teaching interests are centered around political behavior and racial and ethnic politics.
My training focused on Political Psychology, Methodology, and Political Economy while I developed an interest in racial and ethnic politics as well as understanding political behavior in a comparative context, particularly in Latin America.
This page has a listing of my courses taught and teaching interests.
My teaching philosophy and additional sample syllabi are available by request.
Exit Poll Report 11.19.22.pdf2022 Bowdoin Exit Poll Report
As part of the Campaigns and Elections courses, students have designed, conducted, and analyzed a local exit poll. This year the exit poll was conducted in two adjacent towns with distinct voting patterns. Click on the link to your left to read the preliminary report.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Bowdoin College
GOV2065/PSYC2035 - Political Psychology
GOV 2052 - Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
GOV 2060 - Campaigns and Elections
POLI 131 - Introduction to American Multicultural Politics
POLI 200 - Political Science Research Methods
POLI 332 - Parties, Campaigns and Elections
POLI335 - Congress and Legislatures
Political Psychology (taught as special topics)
Identity Politics (taught for the Honors Program)
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Pan American)
POLS 4372 – Campaigns, Elections and Voting Behavior
POLS 3367 – Race and Ethnicity in U.S. Politics
POLS 3313 – Urban Politics
POLS 4370 – Political Socialization and Civic Engagement
POLS 2331 – Statistics for Political Science
POLS 4374 – Public Opinion and Political Behavior
POLS 2302/14 – US and Texas (Institutions and Policy)
POLS 2301/13 – US and Texas (Civil Rights and Liberties, Political Behavior)
POL 392 Campaigns, Elections and Voting Behavior
POL 220 Introduction to American Government and Politics
POL 250 Politics from an International Perspective
JRN 101/103 News Media Literacy, Stony Brook University
POL 101 World Politics
POL 103 Introduction to Comparative Politics
Current Course Descriptions
Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
Our course explores how racial differences are central to the American political experience. Race both shapes and is shaped by politics. We explore the theories developed in the Racial and Ethnic Politics literature as well as those developed in Diversity Studies that have looked at intergroup attitudes and the politics of underrepresented groups. The focus is on racial groups in America and the choices and challenges they face as they become a part of the American society. This course will look at intergroup relations, histories of exclusion and incorporation, political attitudes, voting, political participation, protests, representation, and the historical Black and Chicano movements in order to provide students with a historical and empirical grasp of identity politics from which they can develop their own empirical-based interventions to improve the power inequalities in our society.
Campaigns and Elections
This course exposes students to theories of elections and empirical approaches to understand the factors that shape how campaigns play out and their results.
This course presents the student with a theoretical basis from which to explore practical phenomena in American Politics. Particularly, this course examines how voters make electoral decisions, including the decision to participate at all in elections. The course focuses on voters, partisanship, partisan cleavages, candidate images as well as social variables, particularly race. In addition, this course incorporates an understanding of polling, numbers, and basic methodological strategies political scientists use to empirically explore electoral strategies and outcomes.
One of the unique aspects of this course is its experiential and service learning components. We will participate in a collaborative effort to (a) help provide actionable information for voters, (b) encourage registration and turnout among the university community and (c) design, conduct, analyze, and disseminate results from an exit poll of our local precinct (and maybe more). This is a major component of the course and students will be expected to contribute its multiple parts throughout the course.
Past Course Descriptions and Sample Syllabi
Introduction to American Multicultural Politics
This course teaches about American government and political institutions while paying particular attention to the experiences of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and their intersections. These aspects of American democracy will be the focal point of our course. Politics is about power. We will explore how power is separated and wielded by political institutions, peoples, and how it is unevenly distributed across American society. We will take a close and critical look at political ideologies, information, biases, and outcomes. The major goal is to foment responsible and thoughtful members of society with a strong foundation in the Liberal Arts, and Catholic and Norbertine values and traditions. (Full syllabus here)
Parties, Campaigns and Elections
This course focuses on some of the most visible elements of Political Life: Parties and elections. We start with a theoretical basis from which to explore practical phenomena in American Politics. This course examines how voters make decisions. The course focuses on voters, partisanship, partisan cleavages, candidate images as well as social variables, particularly race. In addition, this course incorporates an understanding of polling, numbers, and basic methodological strategies political scientists use to empirically explore electoral strategies and outcomes.
Three experiential activities are part of this course: (a) provide actionable information for local voters, (b) registration and turnout drive for college and (c) exit poll of our local precinct (and maybe more). This is a major component of the course and students will be expected to contribute its multiple parts throughout the course. (Syllabus here)
Political Psychology
Human beings are political animals by nature, we seek to gain influence in an effort to become successful in life. The motivations behind those drives are central to the study of human behavior.
The Study of Political Psychology involves using scientific understandings of human behavior and cognition to explain and explore political phenomena. It requires us to think about the many factors that impact political behaviors: from the biological and neurological all the way up to the societal and institutional. In this course we will consider questions regarding how well equipped humans are to engage in rational and political behaviors, why cooperation and selfishness emerge, why some people are persuaded while others dig their heels in, and how humans have learned to live with each other and negotiate differences. (Syllabus here)