My full resume is available here.

 

In brief: I was born in Palo Alto, California but grew up in Kent in the United Kingdom. I studied History at Manchester University, where I was awarded the Thomas Brown Memorial Prize. I then took a Masters in History also at Manchester. In 2000, I left the UK to head back to California, where I enrolled at UC Berkeley in political science, earning a Masters degree.

I then moved to Harvard University, where I completed my PhD general exams and wrote my dissertation: From the Ballot to the Blackboard, a study of the impact of politics on education spending, which won the Senator Charles A. Sumner Dissertation Prize. I have also worked as an academic consultant to HM Treasury in the UK and for the Leitch Review of Skills, which is advising the UK government on long-term education policy.

In Fall 2006 I began a position as Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in political economy, international relations, and comparative politics. I am also the organizer in 2007-8 of the Minnesota Political Economy Colloquium.

I have written a variety of papers in the area of political economy, available on my papers page. My academic interests currently focus on the politics of education policy but I am working more broadly on projects on examining whether voters or parties drive policy change, and on the effects of asset price inflation on political preferences. Since my work captures insights from both comparative and international political economy, I hold a strong research interest across a variety of sub-fields in political science.