Research

My research focuses on local politics, political conflict and civic engagement in small cities.

My dissertation, Fig Leaves or Fortresses: Nonpartisan Politics in a Partisan Time, examines the daily practice of nonpartisanship in urban politics across Wisconsin’s small cities. Each chapter explores a different facet of the local political process—elections, policy-making, and public engagement—and shows how partisanship plays a critical if inconsistent and contested role throughout nonpartisan local government. This project has drawing on innovative methods to collect unique data on small city local politics, an area of political life often obscure from the outside. I have collected data on nearly 1,000 local elections for city council and mayor, analyzed hundreds of hours of city council meetings, and conducted extensive archival research and research into local media coverage.

Other research projects have included:

• A study of elder civic engagement in rural Wisconsin, published in Ageing International with Professor Randy Stoecker.
• A study of local political parties and their involvement in the #StopTheSteal Movement, conducted with the UW Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, published in Politics & Society.
• A study of growing geographic polarization within Wisconsin counties and the impact of the rural-urban divide on local politics, published in Urban Affairs Review.
• A survey experiment on popular conceptions of human rights and human rights violations, conducted with Professor Katherine Jensen and Professor Monika Krause.
• A mapping project of the partisan politics of prison proliferation across Rural America, conducted with Professor John Eason and the Justice Labs of America.