Research Interests

My main interests are in environmental sociology and research methods, specifically survey design methods. In my master’s thesis, I explored the influence of political elite cueing on support for environmental spending through a survey experiment. Key findings show that the political identity of sponsors of environmental legislation significantly impacts support especially among Republican men. Read more on these findings at The Sociological Quarterly.

Another research project involves exploring large environmental organizations in the United States using IRS form 990 data. This publication in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly journal explores environmental nonprofit organizations that have embraced a focus on either climate change or social justice issues. Among other things, the findings revealed key differences in organizational characteristics and their likelihood of adopting a focus on climate or justice.

More recently, my dissertation research involves a mixed-methods approach to understanding climate change mitigation and adaptation policy support. Specifically, I am interested in understanding (1) how support for climate change legislation factors (through an Exploratory Factor Analysis), (2) differences in support for various climate policy factors, especially based on political identity, and (3) whether support for adaptation versus mitigation can be predicted based on the possession of the inverted quarantine impulse.