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Service

I am an active member of my intellectual community at Rhodes College and in the American Political Science Association. I view service roles as opportunities to make progressive change in these institutions.

From 2017-22, I served as the Host of the Methods Café at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. The Café is an innovative forum for qualitative and interpretive researchers to meet with seasoned scholars to discuss the nuts and bolts of their work as well as how to successfully fund and publish it. It is an informal setting allowing for one-on-one and group discussions, networking, and support. The Café is co-sponsored by the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods section, and has been a well-attended part of APSA for seventeen years.

Since 2023, I have served as an invited specialist at the Café, discussing with Ph.D. candidates and early-career scholars best-practices for navigating the job market as a qualitative or interpretive researcher.

Methods Café, American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, 2022
Photo credit: Robin L. Turner

My contributions to The Graduate Center Political Science Program were recognized in 2017 when I received the Student Citizenship Award.

From 2017–20, I was elected by my peers to serve on the political science department Executive Committee, one of three student members working alongside faculty. In that role, I worked as part of a team to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, including instituting course evaluations, allowing students to provide anonymous feedback including experiences of bias in the classroom, subsequently addressed by the department. I also served on a search committee for a senior faculty hire in American Politics for the department from 2018–2020.

I am a founding co-chair of the department Alum Committee, established in 2017 and run by students and alum of the program. Together, we established a student-alum mentoring program for students entering the job market. This has proven an indispensable resource for women, BIPOC, and gender non-conforming students to connect with alums who faced similar hurdles in making themselves and their work legible on the academic job market. We also established the Pay It Forward Fund, financed by alum donations. The Alum Committee awards grants from this Fund twice annually to support research and professional development activities for M.A. and Ph.D. students at the Graduate Center.