Teaching

84352/84652: Representation and Voting Rights

Instructor

Spring 2025

What does it mean to be represented? Who is represented, who is not? What is the nature of that representation? In practice, does representation result in policy congruence? Are voters able to hold representatives accountable, and do certain voices have a larger influence? This class explores the concept of representation, what it means in theory, and how it works in practice. We investigate the theoretical underpinnings of representation from a democratic norms' perspective, the legal and constitutional nature of U.S. institutions, and evaluate empirically how well represented the public is. This class has a central theme of how race and racial attitudes affect representation. Voting rights, the Voting Rights Act, and subsequent court cases are highlighted. In the United States, legislative elections are held in single-member districts, which require the drawing of district boundaries every decade. The course culminates with a final project in which we will draw electoral maps that could act as alternatives or remedies to maps enacted this decade.

90726: Disenfranchisement, Campaigns, and U.S. Election Policy

Instructor

Fall 2024

The 2020 election was the culmination of years of intensified debates and legal battles over voting rights, election procedures, and regulations. These events highlighted uncomfortable questions about the state and nature of U.S. elections and amplified them to a new level. Are U.S. elections fair? Who can run for office? Do all Americans have access to their right to vote? Are elections subject to external interference? Furthermore, is the system broken, and if so, how can we fix it? This half-semester graduate public policy course considers these questions and more as we work to explore U.S. elections. We take the U.S. Constitution and federal and state laws as a baseline and consider the legal and societal factors that influence the workings of the U.S. electoral system. This course touches on topics such as voting laws, campaign finance, disinformation, and democratic erosion. Through this process, we confront the challenges facing the U.S. electoral system and explore pathways forward for the future of democracy in the United States.

84354/84654: The American Experiment: Unravelling the US Electoral System

Instructor

Spring 2024

This half-semester undergraduate and graduate course explores the U.S. electoral system and traces its historical evolution. Through this process, students will gain a detailed understanding of the foundations of our current electoral system and the challenges it faces. Students will also be asked to engage thoughtfully with the system's strengths and weaknesses and consider potential reforms. Altogether, this course invites students to unravel the complexities of elections and appreciate their significance in the broader democratic experiment. This course introduces students to cutting-edge research on elections in the United States.

90840: The Media & American Politics

Instructor

Spring 2024, Spring 2025

This half-semester graduate public-policy course explores the intricate relationship between media and politics in contemporary America and grapples with the influence of mass and social media on Americans' political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Course content covers the power of media to persuade, the extent to which media outlets are ideologically slanted, and the role of new information technologies. This course further considers how the media's stewardship of American democracy evolved over time. The media is ever-changing, and as such, this course is designed to raise questions that may not have clear or easy answers.

84351/84651: Bias, Objectivity, and The Media's Role in Politics

Instructor

Fall 2023, Fall 2024

For decades, the pursuit of objectivity has guided media coverage, with organizations striving to present politics in a neutral, unbiased, and balanced manner. However, this modern development in media coverage has not been without its criticisms. This half-semester undergraduate and graduate course offers an exploration of the evolution of news media in the United States, spanning from its foundation to the era of objective journalism and beyond. This information is accompanied by a critical examination of contemporary media dynamics. From filter bubbles and echo chambers to bias and slant, we will delve into the challenges that underpin the media’s coverage of politics. Students will consider questions like what topics get covered by the news and who is exposed to this information? Is objective media truly unbiased, and what do choices about newsworthy politics signal about power in politics? Throughout the course, we will navigate these questions and more as we strive to understand some of the effects of media on politics.

POL 327: Mass Media, Social Media, and American Politics

Preceptor, Head Preceptor

Instructor: Andrew Guess

Fall 2017; Fall 2020

This upper-level politics course introduces students to current research on the role of both mass media and social media in American politics, as well as the influence of media on American political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Course content addresses the nature of news and news-making organizations, the role of news media in electoral campaigns, the influence of media on elite behavior, political advertising, and the use of social media to facilitate collective action.

POL 505: Experimental Methods in Political Science

Preceptor

Instructor: Leonard Wantchekon

Spring 2018

This graduate-level course is designed to introduce students to the theoretical and practical features of experimental political sciences, with a special emphasis on natural and field experiments. Content in the course was divided into methodological instruction, design, field experience. As a preceptor, I assisted students with questions regarding replication projects and experimental design in their work. I also helped contribute to the course syllabus.

POL 330: Electing the President, Voter Psychology and Candidate Strategy

Preceptor

Instructor: Markus Prior

Spring 2019

This upper-level politics course examines how election campaigns affect voters. The primary focus of the class is on the nature of modern election campaigns and their impact on people's political reasoning and voting behavior. The class presents an overview of explanations for people's voting decisions, from stable long-term factors (such as partisan identification) to short-term term influences of the campaign and media coverage. Moreover, It illustrates that people's political behavior is best understood by examining those factors at different electoral levels, in different communication environments, and for different groups of people.

POL 981: Junior Independent Work, Plenary Sessions

Preceptor, Head Preceptor

Instructor: Nolan McCarty

Fall 2019, Fall 2021

This upper-level course is designed to introduce students to common concepts and methods used in political science research and to facilitate the development of an independent research project. The course covers numerous concepts related to research design, including the scientific method, qualitative and quantitative data, case selection, process tracing, experiments, survey design, and statistical analyses. Precepts for the class are a point of instruction where students can discuss the concepts addressed in the online lectures each week and practice applying the concepts to their own research.

Teaching-Related Work:

Future Faculty Program Participant

Fall 2023-Present

Carnegie Mellon's Future Faculty Program helps graduate students and post-doctoral fellows develop and document their teaching skills in preparation for a faculty career. Participants in this program learn the principles of effective course design and pedagogy through seminars, receive feedback on their teaching through teaching feedback consultations, and apply what they have learned in completing a course & syllabus design project and a statement of teaching philosophy project.programming.

PPIA Junior Summer Institute

Introductory Statistics Tutor

Summer 2021

Princeton's Public Policy and International Affairs Program (PPIA) Junior Summer Insitute (JSI) is a program offered to rising college seniors at U.S. accredited universities who demonstrate academic aptitude and a passion for policy. The goal of JSI is to prepare undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds -- including underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities and students from families with lower socioeconomic status -- for graduate study and careers in public policy. As a tutor, I provided consulting hours where I assisted students with their questions regarding introductory statistics and R programming.

McGraw Center Teaching Transcript Recipient

2021

The Teaching Transcript Program provides Princeton graduate students and postdoctoral researchers opportunities to develop as self-reflective teachers who identify what they want students to learn and then create strategies to promote and assess that learning. The program includes workshops on a wide range of issues related to teaching and academic careers, lunchtime discussions with faculty who are distinguished teachers, and a teaching observation. It culminates with the preparation of an original course syllabus and a statement of teaching philosophy.