I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kansas. From 2004-2007, I served as Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. In Fall 2007, I taught and conducted research at Ivan Franko National University in L'viv, Ukraine on a Fulbright Fellowship. I have traveled extensively in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and have been an international observer in six elections in Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine.

My research focuses on political institutions, especially election rules. I am the bibliographer for the Representation and Electoral Systems section of the American Political Science Association, and have performed outreach about elections with government officials, the media, and the public in the U.S. and abroad. I have published my research in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, World Politics, Electoral Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Party Politics, Election Law Journal, Democratization, Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Journal of Central Asian Studies, and Problems of Post-Communism. In 2005, my co-authored book, Mixed Electoral Systems: Contamination and its Consequences (with Federico Ferrara and Misa Nishikawa), was published by Palgrave. I am currently completing a book manuscript, Elections and Democracy After Communism?, and am beginning work on a new collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation. More information is available on my CV.