Background

Research

I am currently working on a project with Professor Derek Bell about the environmental justice impacts of hydraculic fracturing (fracking).  Our first study, "Just Fracking: a distributive environmental justice analysis of unconventional gas" was recently published in Environmental Research Letters (2015 ISI: 4.5).  The next iteration of this project will look more closely at the role of political participation and regulation in affecting the placement of wells, and thus their environmental justice impact.

My Google Scholar profile can be located here.

Teaching

I enjoy teaching research methods to politics and social science students.  I believe that understanding numbers is essential to being able to properly engage with important political issues.  I motivate my students to think critically whenever they encounter statistics in the media or in political conversations.

I received a ESRC grant in 2011 to develop a series of discussion guides to help lecturers teaching politics modules include discussions of the quantitative aspects of the material they teach.  Those materials have been deposited at OPOSSEM and are free for anyone to use.

Along with colleagues at University of Nottingham and University of Liverpool, I am co-leading the PSA's new Teaching Quantitative Methods Network.  We will be holding workshops approximately every six months over 2016-2018.  If you would like to hear more about our activities, please let me know so that I can put you on a mailing list.

Professional

I serve as associate editor on the PSA journal Politics (2015 ISI: 1.51, 36/163 in Political Science).

Research

Environmental Justice

I am currently working on a project with Professor Derek Bell about the environmental justice impacts of hydraculic fracturing (fracking).  Our first study, "Just Fracking: a distributive environmental justice analysis of unconventional gas" was recently published in Environmental Research Letters (2015 ISI: 4.5).  The next iteration of this project will look more closely at the role of political participation and regulation in affecting the placement of wells, and thus their environmental justice impact.

Strategic voting and Duverger's Law

My early research agenda used agent-based models to explore whether and how people would vote strategically without access to polling data.  

Teaching

I really enjoy teaching research methods to politics and social science students.  I believe that understanding numbers is essential to being able to properly engage with important political issues.  I motivate my students to think critically whenever they encounter statistics in the media or in political conversations

Undergraduate Teaching

POL2081: Research Methods in Politics

This module takes students from measurement through to linear regression.  Students use SPSS to explore the British Social Attitude Survey.

POL3103: Community Based Research in Politics

This module acts as a fulfilment of the research requirement for final year Politics students.  Instead of writing a dissertation, students engage in a year length research project with a community organisation.  This develops the research skills of the students while providing a valuable service to the organisation that is involved.  This module is part of the Social Justice NE initiative.

Postgraduate Teaching

POL8038: Doing Political Research

This research methods module gives students the primary research skills necessary to engage in independent research.   The focus of the module is usually on a standard set of quantitative methods, but there is considerable flexibility to account for student needs and interests.  As an assessment, students work in teams to produce a research paper; the goal is to have this paper to be publishable in quality.  Craig Johnson and Sunil Rodger's paper "Did Perceptions of the Economy Affect Attitudes to Immigration at the 2010 British General Election?", published in Social Science Quarterly, was first written for this module.

HSS8005: Introduction to Quantitative Methods

I work with my colleague Dr. Robin Humphrey to deliver this module.  I teach classes on statistical inference and sampling, and the advanced optional classes on multivariate techniques.

Publications