Profile

Fields: Comparative politics, political parties, political institutions, elite and mass political behavior

Current research focuses on the role of gender in party strategy (especially with regards to populist radical right parties). Past work has examined the role of mainstream party strategy in shaping the electoral trajectories of niche parties, the centrality of issue salience and issue ownership to voter choice, the impact of relative party polarization on voter turnout, whether and how niche parties are strategic, and the origins and effects of political institutions, including decentralization. Her book, Party Competition Between Unequals (Cambridge University Press, 2008), received the 2009 Riker Prize, awarded by the Political Economy Section of the APSA; the 2009 Best Book Award by the European Politics and Society Section of the APSA; and the 2010 Council for European Studies Best Book Award. Her articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics, Electoral Studies, European Journal of Political Research, and World Politics. She received the Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Rochester. She teaches courses on comparative politics, political parties, political institutions and behavior, and ethnicity and nationalism.

Courses taught

• PSCI/INTR 101 Introduction to Comparative Politics
• PSCI/INTR 252 Ethnic Politics and Ethnic Conflict
• PSCI/INTR 253 Comparative Political Parties
• PSCI/INTR 267 Identity, Ethnicity and Nationalism
• PSCI/INTR 351 Western European Politics
• PSCI 356 Political Institutions and Behavior
• PSCI 357 Topics in Comparative Politics: Parties and Party Competition
• PSCI 551 Western European Politics
• PSCI 553 Ethnic Politics
• PSCI 556 Political Institutions and Behavior
• PSCI 557 Topics in Comparative Politics: Parties and Party Competition
• PSCI 558 Comparative Parties and Elections