Welcome to My Webpage
I am a PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis and am presently finishing my dissertation. This year I will also be an APSA Congressional Fellow and will be working in Washington, D.C. until the end of the summer.
My teaching and research interests are in general related to American political institutions and within American politics I am particularly interested in executive politics and the institutional presidency. These interests include both the President and the extended executive bureaucracy. Most of my research to date has concerned presidential/congressional inter-branch relations but I also have an active interest in environmental and energy policy.
My dissertation examines the factors that motivate the Senate to delay executive nominations to bureaucratic agencies. Specifically, I am interested in the strategic, partisan motivations behind the tendency to delay nominees. Additionally, I will examine the factors associated with failed nominations as well as presidential responses to delay in order to gain a full picture of this inter-branch interaction. I intend to defend my dissertation and graduate in the Spring of 2012.
For more detailed information on my teaching and research interests, check out the content under the appropriate tab above.