I am a Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. Most of my research and writing are at the intersection of culture and politics, with an eye on the ever-shifting dynamics of popular culture, social movements, race, religion, and identity. Having earned my PhD at the New School for Social Research, I am also informed by and enjoy teaching political theory.

My scholarship on the intersection of race and religion in American politics culminated in my book Ambivalent Miracles: Evangelicals and the Politics of Racial Healing. Following that, I explored the mobilization of zombies as a multivalent metaphor in contemporary politics, looking at cases in Slovenia and the U.S. More recently, I am pursuing a new, comparative project on the strategic mobilization of emotion in global youth climate activism.

I enjoy the challenge of combining scholarship with public advocacy and analysis. In 2014, I chaired the committee at the University of Denver that issued a report on the role of our founder in the Sand Creek Massacre. I have written public essays for Vox, The Washington Post, The Denver Post and Political Theology Today. I am also a frequent speaker in the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art’s Mixed Taste: Lectures on Unrelated Subjects series.