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. I have traveled
extensively in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, including a semester as a Fulbright scholar
in Ukraine. I have also been an international
observer for seven elections in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine.
My research focuses on political institutions, especially election rules.
I am a member of the Executive Committee and also serve as bibliographer for the Representation
and Electoral Systems Section of the American Political Science Association.
I have performed outreach about elections with government officials,
the media, and the public in the U.S. and abroad, and 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. I have also published
two books with Palgrave Macmillan: Mixed Electoral Systems: Contamination and
its Consequences (with Federico Ferrara and Misa Nishikawa) and Elections
and Democracy after Communism?.
I am currently working on a collaborative project, funded by the National Science Foundation, that investigates how political parties
make personnel decisions. I continue to investigate oversight and representation in Ukraine,
spatial variation in voting in several post-communist countries, and the role of courts in election disputes. More information is
available on my CV.
Office Hours (Spring 2010)
- 310 Blake Hall, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:45 -11:45 a.m., and by appointment.
Current Courses
- POLS 654 - Politics of Russia & the Central Eurasian States
- POLS 851 - Seminar in Comparative Political Institutions