Current research
My most recent book offers a political theory of the restaurant. It explores the particular sort of conversations that restaurants make possible — conversations that we often avoid in other spaces.
My next project delves deeper into these questions with a focus on gender.
My first book explores the way ideas about parenthood have influenced the development of the concept of citizenship in modern democracies.
I continue to do research regarding ideas about family and parenthood in American politics. I do this through the critical examination of public policy, engagements with political theory, and the examination of public opinion data about ideas about parenthood and children affect political attitudes and behavior.
I also have an ongoing project, begun with a student at UNE, examining new ways to understand who votes and who does not in America, which you can read about in Time Magazine.
Selected publications
Books:
Restaurant (An Object Lesson). Bloomsbury, 2025.
The Parent as Citizen: A Democratic Dilemma. The University of Minnesota Press, 2011.