About Me - A Short Biography

I'm originally from West Texas, but I've traveled a fair bit -- studying abroad in Australia, Germany, and the UK. I've visited eastern Europe, camped in southern Africa, and taught English in Korea. My interest in international relations is exhibited in my love of traveling abroad.

I am currently a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Washington.

I hold an M.A. in Political Science from the UW, an M.Phil. (Master's of Philosophy) in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and a B.A. in English with a specialization in Technical Communication from Texas Tech University.

Teaching

I am TAing POL S 203 this quarter (Au09). Additionally, I am an IT Staff Assistant for the Political Science department, building and maintaing departmental and instructor websites.

POL S 203 AE website

Since coming to the University of Washington, I have been a Teaching Assistant for multiple quarters of an Introduction to American Politics (POL S 202) and an Introduction to International Relations (POL S 203).

To learn more about my teaching philosophy, please click here.

Research

My research subfields are international relations, political communication, and political/communication methodology.

My M.A. Essay of Distinction examines the language surrounding troop withdrawal in the US media during 2007. I found that Lance Bennett's indexing hypothesis is at work--news media index the range of elite voices--but the process is complicated by strong elite dissenses, in which there is simultaneous inter-congressional and executive/legislative debate. I term this process dynamic indexing.

To find out more on my current and past research, click here.