Welcome!

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). I received my Ph.D. from the University of Georgia (2023) with focuses in American Politics (Major) & Formal Theory (Minor). My research works to merge conventional studies of judicial politics with emerging computational methods. To date, my research has been published, mentioned, or featured in The Journal of Law and Courts, The Justice System Journal, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Newsweek, ABCNews, The Washington Times, The Daily Kos, SCOTUSBlog, and Empirical SCOTUS, among others. Beginning in Fall 2024, I will be an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL).

My dissertation (under the direction of Dr. Richard L. Vining, Jr.) explored how media outlets and average Americans employ social media platforms like Twitter to instigate public discourse in response to decision-making by the United States Supreme Court. Leveraging data mining, machine learning, and ideal point estimation techniques, my research provides novel contributions toward discerning the theoretical motivations underpinning strategic media framing behaviors and the capacity for the public to engage in discourse online. I find that social media facilitates ideologically driven behaviors as a reflection of predisposed beliefs, perceptions of trends in the justices’ decision-making, and strategic media behaviors.

In addition to my dissertation, my research focuses extensively on federal courts, with particular interest in the United States Supreme Court. To date, I have published or have works in progress that consider the motivations and effects of rhetorical behaviors during Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the institutionalization of the Article III federal courts, strategic retention and departure of lower federal court judges, among other research areas. For more information on my published and pending research, please see my Curriculum Vitae.

Apart from published research, I recently completed Version 0.0.1 of scotustext, a Comprehensive R Package for Retrieving, Cleaning, and Parsing Documents from the United States Supreme Court. For more information, please visit the Package Site.

Prior to my postdoctoral appointment at Purdue, I received my Ph.D from the University of Georgia and Dual B.A.’s from the University of Nevada, Reno. When I am not researching, you can find me watching the back-to-back national champion Georgia Bulldogs or engaging in a perpetual spiral of self-loathing while watching the New York Mets waste another $350 million payroll and prove that being able to hit a baseball is apparently not a pre-requisite to play in the major leagues. My wife, a fellow Georgia alumnus and Atlanta Braves fan (albeit only because she knows it gets under my skin), appears to enjoy it when I’m doing either.