Imagining America

My broader research agenda is situated in two areas. First, in Comparative Political Theory and Post-Colonial Thought, my work on hemispheric insurgency movements emphasizes Indigenous studies, racial and ethnic studies, popular movements, and decolonial politics. My research aims to bring a vernacular perspective in the study of marginalized groups by tracing the language, practices, and visions they used to subvert colonial power. Second, my research aims to expand the scope and archive of the History of Political Thought by highlighting the political and conceptual innovations of popular discursive contexts. My study of the Age of Revolutions focuses on the reception of Republican Political Thought in the Americas, as well as its imbrication in histories of empire and colonialism. My work on insurgency movements demonstrates that marginalized communities not only understood the saliency of republican rhetoric during the Age of Revolutions, but also shows how these groups transformed republican thinking to better address their lived experiences as colonial subjects.

My research in American Politics focuses on public opinion, voter behavior, issue saliency, and open-ended data methods. My co-authored project with Benjamin Page, Thomas Ferguson, Jacob Rothschild and Jie Chen, "The Roots of Right-Wing Populism: Donald Trump in 2016," appeared in the International Journal of Political Economy (July 2020). This project is funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking.