Research
What are the political, social, and economic barriers to addressing the extreme inequality facing the United States today? When have public officials and communities successfully overcome these barriers? I study these questions through the lenses federalism, American political economy, and state politics.
Peer reviewed
(Un)Happy Incidents: The Politics of Failed Policies. Forthcoming with Oxford University Press
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Brown, Colin M., Sarah E. James, Matthew Reichert, George Soroka, and Aaron Watanabe. "Setting Expectations: Rubrics as a Formative Tool for Communicating in the Social Sciences." College Teaching (2023): 1-10.
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“Institutional capacities, partisan divisions, and federal tensions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” With Theda Skocpol & Caroline Tervo. Forthcoming in The Social and Political impact of COVID-19 in the United States special issue of the Russel Sage Foundation Journal of Social Sciences.
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"Mea Culpa? The Role of Data Collection in Public Officials Acknowledging Policy Failure." State Politics & Policy Quarterly 22.1 (2022): 96-119.
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“Examining the Effect of Explicit Writing Instruction on the Quality of Student Writing” with Colin Brown and George Soroka. Journal for Political Science Education. 17:1 (January 2021): 835-861.
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“Beyond the Likely Voter: An Analysis of Conservative Political Outreach” with Angie Bautista-Chavez. Political Science Quarterly. 134:3 (Fall 2019): 407-443.
Works in progress
"Prove It: How partisan organizations use evidence to justify economic ideologies." Working paper.
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​“Evidence on using evidence: Partisan patterns of invoking research in national party platforms.” Working paper.
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“State-level data collection and transparency and its impact on policymaking during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Working paper.
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“Re-opening by number(s): State-level crisis policymaking and public health data.” Working paper.
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Other publications
“How Conservative Political Organizations Engage and Try to Recruit Left-Leaning Constituencies,” with Angie Bautista-Chavez, Scholars Strategy Network, August 2018
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“The Libre Initiative: An Innovative Conservative Effort to Recruit Latino Support,” with Angie Bautista-Chavez, Scholars Strategy Network, March 2016
Media Appearances & Contributions
Featured and quoted in "Debate Watch, Ignatian Style." Gonzaga University News. September 12, 2024.
Instructional work featured and quoted in "Encouraging Engagement." Gonzaga News. August 22, 2024.
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Quoted in "Could a WA attorney general and governor work across the aisle?" by Shauna Showersby. Cascade PBS. August 20, 2024.
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Featured and quoted in "GU Faculty host election Crash Course for 2024 Presidential Election" by Ruby Gross. Gonzaga Bulletin. April 9, 2024.
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Quoted in "Spokane Schools Levy Fails. What's Next?" by Elena Perry. Spokesman-Review. February 15, 2024.
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Interview for KHQ Local News Spokane on the House of Representatives and Kevin McCarthy. October 3, 2023.