Office Hours

​During the fall 2026 semester, my walk-in office hours are Mondays 2:00-5:00pm in room #890 in the McCourt School building. Any Georgetown student can drop in then without an appointment. You do not need to contact me in advance.​
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Advising UndergradUate Honors Theses

  • If you are writing an honors thesis in the Depart of Government, you can ask me to serve as your advisor. Please email me by the end of September of your senior year. I normally only advise one honors thesis student per academic year, and I prioritize students who have previously taken a class with me. However, every thesis also has a professor who serves as the "second reader. And I can serve as the second reader for additional theses.

I Do Not Advise MPP Theses

  • The McCourt School has certain professors who advise MPP theses. If you are writing a thesis, you enroll in the MPP thesis as a class in your second year. That instructor is your thesis advisor. As I do not teach that class, I cannot serve as your MPP thesis advisor. However, if you visit me during my office hours, I am happy to discuss your thesis plans and progress at that time if your thesis topic overlaps with my areas of expertise.

Prospective PhD Students

  • You do not need to contact me or any Georgetown faculty in advance of applying to the Dept of Government PhD program. Unlike some academic fields, we do not have an admissions system in which individual advisors choose to accept students who will work with them. We have a single department-wide PhD admissions committee that reads all the applications and makes decisions. Contacting faculty in advance does not affect your admission probability. I am generally unable to meet with applicants before they are admitted, both for equity reasons and due to time limitations. 
  • I am available to advise PhD students and serve on dissertation committees. I can serve as the primary dissertation advisor (in other words, the dissertation committee chair) for dissertations focusing on some aspect of public opinion, elections, survey research, or the mass media. And I can serve on the dissertation committee of students working in any area of American politics. Decisions about your dissertation committee membership are not made when you start the program. PhD students in the Dept of Government will come to an agreement with faculty members to serve on their committee in their second or third year of the PhD program.
  • The Government Department’s admissions page provides more information on the application process.

High School Students

  • I'm sorry, but as a policy, I do not hire high school students or undergraduates from universities other than Georgetown as research assistants. The volume of requests is simply too high for me to carefully process them.
  • I also don't meet individually with prospective Georgetown undergraduate applicants unless it is arranged through the Office of Admissions. Here again, the volume of requests is sadly too high. I wish you the best of luck and encourage you to contact Admissions.