I care a lot about teaching. Social science can be used as a vehicle to develop a number of broadly useful cognitive skills, and I try to do exactly this in my classes. I strive to create “active learning” environments in which lecturing is minimal or nonexistent and students wrestle with concepts in real time. I’ve been quite influenced by the Minerva Project and the philosophy that undergirds it. I am also a member of Heterodox Academy and care about creating a class environment in which all viewpoints can be discussed. For fun, here is what students had to say when I added a question to my teaching evaluations asking students to guess my political leanings.
You can see some of my recent course syllabi and other materials below. If you would like more information on the things I do in class, please feel free to contact me. As a general matter, I am more than happy to share assignments, lesson plans, and so forth with anyone who might benefit from them.
Poli100: Introduction to Government in the United States
Syllabus (Spring 2019, Honors)
Constitutional Amendment Activity (I’m proud of this)
Poli281: Data in Politics I: An Introduction
Syllabus (Fall 2020)
This course will be supported by DataCamp, an online platform for learning about data science and the R statistical environment.
Poli381: Data in Politics II: Frontiers and Applications
Syllabus (Spring 2021)
Data-driven Red Teaming (Final project)
Poli417: Advanced Political Psychology
Syllabus (Spring 2018, Honors)
Poli711: American Political Behavior (Graduate)
Syllabus (Spring 2021)
Poli712: Public Opinion (Graduate)
Syllabus (Fall 2018)
General resources for undergraduates
This essay conveys my belief that students should take ownership of their education.
Here are my guidelines and policies for advising honors theses at UNC.
Patrick Egan made a very nice style guide focused on issues that commonly come up in political science writing. (Potentially useful for graduate students, too.)
Virginia Sapiro’s rubric for high-quality class discussions. This is well-stated!
General resources for graduate students
Finishing Your Ph.D.: Advice and Guidelines for Graduate Students (Required reading for advisees)
I wanted to write a writing guide for graduate students someday. But John Cochrane already wrote pretty much the one I would have written. I recommend it highly.
Reflection on the academic job market