ABOUT ME

I am the Hylton Professor of Government and International Relations   at William & Mary. I direct William & Mary's   Global Research Institute   and I am a Co-PI on the Teaching, Research and International Policy    (TRIP) project.  I teach courses on International Relations, International Organizations, Development Policy, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Policymaking in Comparative Perspective.

I’m currently working on three research projects. The first uses open source data to explain the allocation and effectiveness development finance from China. The second explores the impact of teaching and research on the behavior of policymakers and practitioners. The third project uses methods of participant observation to describe and experience the globalization of multi-grained beverages.
​
My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the World Bank, the United Nations University, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, among others. More details can be found on my   CV.

Books & Special Issues

Research Labs

20 years ago, I helped  co-found  AidData and TRIP  with undergraduate students to research pressing global issues. Today,   the Global Research Institute, which houses  these labs and others,   is a multidisciplinary hub that brings    together faculty, staff, practitioners, and students to conduct applied research.   GRI  bridges gaps between disciplinary silos on campus, between scholars and practitioners, and between different generations of researchers. At GRI we embrace the reality that good ideas can come from anyone, not just gray-haired professors.  At GRI students, faculty, staff, and practitioners work together to design, conduct, and disseminate applied research on pressing global problems. We do this in the lab, in the field, and on the patio while sharing BBQ.
AidData  equips policymakers and practitioners with better evidence to improve how development investments are targeted, monitored, and evaluated.   AidData researches Chinese development finance,  conducts geospatial impact evaluations, surveys development leaders, and more.
The Teaching, Research, & International Policy (TRIP) Project gathers data and publishes analysis on the discipline of international relations. We are particularly interested in how scholars and policy makers use IR research to make sense of contemporary international politics.