Professional Appointments

Associate Professor, George Mason University, 2006-present
Director, Masters of Public Policy Program, teaching courses on research methods, policy analysis, foreign policy, and American institutions.

Assistant Professor, George Mason University, 2003-2006.

Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgetown University, 2001-2003.

Assistant Professor, Kalamazoo College, 1996-2001.

Convention Papers and Presentations
“Partisan Patterns in the Aftermath of Terror: Civil Liberties, Spending and the Centrality of Fear.” With Naoru Koizumi and Todd LaPorte. A paper presented at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting, August 31, 2006, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Assessing Faculty Bias: A Critique and a Look Forward.” Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, January, 2006.

“Christian Fundamentalists and Public Opinion Toward the Middle East: Israel’s New Best Friends?” Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA, November, 2002.

“Racial Conservatism and Support for the Court: Did Whites Notice The Rehnquist Turn to the Right on Race?” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, August, 2002. (With Jacquie Jones)

“Politics Returns to Center Stage.” National Capital Area Political Science Association, for the panel “Teaching Political Science in the Post 9-11 Climate.” Washington DC, May 15, 2002.

“Color Blind Justice?: The Effect of Racial Conservatism on Public Support for the Supreme Court.” National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Atlanta Georgia, March 2002. (With Jacquie Jones)

“A Tale of Two Straddles: The Quiet Racial Politics of the 1960 Presidential Campaign.” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1999.

“Testing ‘Mere Mention’: Does Affirmative Action Inflame Affective Responses.” Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, October 28-31, 1998.

“White Voters and Racial Context in Presidential Elections: The Influence of Black Population Levels on White Voting Behavior in The Elections of 1988, 1992, and 1996.” Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Norfolk, Virginia, November 5-7, 1997.

“Race Relations and Generation X: How the Most Ethnically Diverse Generation Approaches Questions of Race in America” Coauthor Molly Sonner. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, April 10-12, 1997.

"Reflections Across the Pacific: Politics, Economics, War, and Alliance in the Minds of American and Japanese Citizens.” Coauthors Cynthia Hamill, Aiji Tanaka, and Clyde Wilcox. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, April 10-12, 1997.

"Did Lee Atwater and Willie Horton Matter? Racial Environment, National Partisan Elites, and the Presidential Elections of 1988 and 1992." Coauthor Molly Sonner. American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, August, 1996.

"White Partisan Defectors and Black Population Levels: Evidence of a New Theory of White Group Identity?" Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting Chicago, April, 1996.

"A Causal Path Analysis of the 1988 Election:Willie Horton and White Responses to Racial Environment." Southwest Social Science Association’s Annual Meeting, Houston, March, 1996.

"Southern Whites, Non-Southern Whites, and Racial Environment: A Comparison of Political Responses Among Whites to Black Population Levels in Three States." Citadel’s Symposium on Southern Politics, Charleston, South Carolina, March, 1996.

"Religious Coalitions in Iowa Politics: Catholics, the Christian Right, and 1994." Association for the Sociology of Religion, Washington DC, August, 1995.

"After Shaw v. Reno: Three Generations of Jurists Confront Racial Redistricting." Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, April, 1995.

"Japan and International Relations Theory: Applying Western Rules to an Eastern Power." Georgetown University Colloquium on Japan and Theories of International Relations, 1994.

Invited Talks
Lecture tour of Germany, March 2008, for the State Department’s Cultural Exchange program.  Gave speeches in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and Munich, on the 2008 Presidential Election and on media politics.

“The 2008 Presidential Election: History in the Making.” A public lecture at the School of Governance, University of Maastricht, January 17th, 2008.

“Knee Deep in the Big Sandy or Rising to the New Challenge of World Leadership?  US Foreign Policy Since 9-11.” And “World Leadership Rejected, Accepted, and Mastered: Looking Back on the American Century.”  Lectures at the US in a Global Community conference, Bonn, Germany, May 18-19th, 2007.

“Christian Fundamentalists and Israel: Israel’s New Best Friends?” Nuhrnberg-Erlangen University, Nuhrnberg Germany, May 16, 2007.

“Racial Politics in American Presidential Elections.”  German American Institute, Stuttgart, Germany, May 14, 2007.

“American Political Institutions.” Guest Lecturer, May 7-11, School of Government, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.

“Parties, Media and the Rise of the Internet:A Speculative Essay on the Ongoing Shift in the Balance of Political Power Among Communication Elites.” International Workshop on Policy Systems and Meta-Policy Systems in Advanced Countries: the Political Mechanism of Policy Change. University of Tokyo. March 5, 2007.

“The Longest Campaign in the World: Choosing the President 2008.” Presentation to the National Council of International Visitors, Washington DC, February 17, 2007.

“Response to Geer.” A commentary on In Defense of Negativity, by John G. Geer. The Cato Institute, Washington DC, September 20, 2006.

“Culture War And the Judiciary: The Roots in Religion.” 6th Annual Justice At Stake Convention, Washington, DC, June 22, 2006.

“Structural Flaws in American Elections.” Keynote address given on behalf of the U.S. Department to an international conference on electoral fairness and justice, sponsored by the state government of Guererro, Mexico, April 2006.

“Barriers to Civic Engagement in America.” Talk given to the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program Washington Seminar, February 9, 2006, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

“Racial Politics in the 2004 Presidential Election.” Talk for the League of Women Voters of Northern Virginia, February 2006.

“Lee v. Weisman and Rosenberger v. UVA.” A talk given at the We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution meeting for Northern Virginia public high school teachers, Fredericksburg, VA, October 2005.

One Nation Under Whose God? Two Establishment Clause Cases.” Keynote address at the Lou Frey Institute Conference on 9-11, University of Central Florida, October, 2005.

“Explaining the 2004 Presidential Election.” Talk given to the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program Washington Seminar, November 16, 2004, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

“Foreign Policy in the Presidential Election of 2004: Advantage Bush?” Paper presented at the conference “The United States and the International Order”, sponsored by the Luso-American Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, September 30–October 1, 2004.

“Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns.” A forum on my book Running on Race, with Michael Dukakis and Paul Watanabe, held at the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA, April 28, 2003.

“Safer, Less Free, or Both? Civil Liberties after 9-11” and “Shock to the System or Return to Normal? The Effects of 9-11 on the American Political System.” Addresses at the Lou Frey Institute Conference on 9-11, University of Central Florida, April 2003.

“Running on Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns.” Keynote address, Global Citizenship Program, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, MO. October, 2002.

“Bowling Alone in Arlington? The Relevance of Robert Putnam to Our Community.” Speech to the Committee of 100, a forum for civic leaders, Arlington, Virginia, December, 2001.

“The Meaning of the 2001 Elections.” Guest on the Voice of America’s call-in show on American politics, “America Today,” November 2001.

“Running on Race: The Racial Politics of the 1960, 1988, and 2000 Presidential Campaigns.” Forum talk at the Miller Center on Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. August, 2001.

“Kennedy’s Phone Call and Nixon’s Silence: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Racial Politics of the 1960 Campaign.” Speech given as part of the celebration of King Week at Kalamazoo College. Broadcast in 1999 and 2000 by WMUK, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“Beyond Braveheart: Scottish Influences on the Constitution” Speech given to the Kalamazoo County Rotary Club, February, 1998.

“Change Your Tie Bill, Your Numbers Are Bad: The Perils and Promise of Polling For Politics.” Speech to the faculty of Kalamazoo College, as part of the Colloquium Series, Spring 1997.