Research Summary: I am a public opinion scholar who researches the effects of political communication from the perspective of a political psychologist. This means I consider the role of human psychology (i.e., limited cognition, social group identity, racial attitudes) in media use and public opinion. The outcome I am most interested in is democratic competence, commonly conceptualized as political knowledge, but I also care deeply about a range of other outcomes related to democratic politics.

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I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, where I majored in communication. After several years working in public relations, I went back to school and received my PhD in Political Science in 2014 from Rutgers University, New Brunswick. My dissertation was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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I have published in the Journal of Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, The International Journal of Press and Politics, and other journals. You can find a list of my publications here.

 

Current research: What does democracy look like when people use the internet as an extension of their mind? I am keenly interested in the political effects of the incorporation of technology into routine cognitive functions. Some of my recent research examines under what circumstances citizens can 'google their way through politics' and use other cognitive enhancements (e.g. AI) and still be civically competent.

 

I am also interested in the interaction of race and new technology. In a recent publication, I developed a theory of how group identity interacts with the hybrid media environment and subsequently affects political knowledge. I show that group identity prompts selective exposure to media content, which gives rise to specialized group-relevant political knowledge. This research helps us better understand the role of digital media in democratic politics and illustrates that the affordances of the internet, and particularly selective exposure, are crucial to marginalized groups, who do not see their interests represented in mainstream media content, but who can access such information online.

 

I have also explored how new technology affects group conflict in Myanmar. In several co-authored papers, I have tested the connection between Facebook use, ethnic conflict, hate speech, and offline violence. I am currently working on a paper exploring the role of Facebook and Telegram in the resistance movement in Myanmar.

 

You can visit my Google Scholar  page for more information.

 

Teaching and advising: I enjoy teaching and advising students at Queens College, CUNY. My teaching has been recognized with an award for excellence in teaching in 20/21 at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, where I held a tenure track position before relocating to NY. My courses include Introduction to American Politics, The Politics of Race and Ethnicity, and classes in Political Communication, and The Internet and US Politics. I have also taught a service-learning course, a class on Public Opinion, Introduction to Research Methods, and Constitutional Law.

 

Media: I have commented on elections and voting in The Guardian, Agence France-Press, Newsweek, German Public Radio (Deutschlandfunk), and other outlets.

 

Personal: I live with my husband and our two children in the Hudson Valley, N.Y.