I am currently Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Connecticut State University. My research sits at the nexus of identities, public policy, and American political development. My first book, Fatherhood, Race and the American State: The Politics of Patriarchal Anxieties (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026), analyzes moments in American political history where a diversifying political community inspired fear among advocates of White patriarchy. I investigate why these moments of crisis led advocates to organize for state interventions into family life that would center patriarchy as a model of political authority.
Growing up in the midst of the Reagan Revolution and the Triangulated 90s, I was inundated as a child with idealized messages about family life. As a gay kid growing up in a conservative corner of South Carolina, I heard these messages in multiple registers simultaneously. Familial discourse is a potent force in American politics, and I hope my research can contribute to political movements that draw attention to the needs of diverse families.
