I am a cultural sociologist who engages innovative methods to provide empirical knowledge about American identity, racial attitudes, immigration, and US politics. I am currently a Faculty Fellow in the Department of Sociology at New York University.

I combine computational text analysis, experimental survey, and behavioral game methods to examine relationships between political discourse, attitudes, resource allocation, and national belonging. My work has received recognition and support from various organizations including the American Association for Public Opinion Research, the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, and the Russell Sage Foundation’s Summer Institute in Computational Social Science.

In one line of research, I take an innovative multidimensional experimental approach to assess the relative weight of ascribed (e.g. nativity, race, and gender) and morally imbued acquired characteristics in conceptions of national belonging. Furthermore, I use experimental manipulations informed by original computational text analyses of nearly 28,000 political documents from national Democratic and Republican lawmakers to show how language oriented towards breaking down or propping up boundaries between immigrants and native-born citizens can alter evaluations of national belonging. This work is based on an original nation-wide study conducted by YouGov in August 2021 of 4,500 non-Hispanic White Americans.

My second line of research continues to examine the effects of boundary-work in political communication, focusing on the issue of resource allocation. This work is based on an original economic behavioral game and survey with a multi-racial probability-sample of 2,870 adults conducted by NORC between August and September 2021.

Prior to commencing a career in academia, I worked in cable news where I helped shape thoughtful conversations about inequality and marginalized communities for a national audience. As a booker for the network, I was particularly attuned to issues of diversity and inclusion ensuring that panels included a range of perspectives—intellectually, politically, and with regards to identity and representation. I remain committed to seeking out diverse viewpoints and cultivating inclusive environments where those ideas can flourish and be appreciated by all.

Education
PhD in Sociology, Harvard University 2023
MA in Sociology, Harvard University 2019
MA in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies, Stanford Graduate School of Education, 2011
BA in African & American Studies, Stanford University 2011
PhD, Harvard University 2023