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I am an Associate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University. My specialties include black politics, racial politics, urban politics, public opinion, and American political thought. I've published in a variety of academic journals (including the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Political Analysis, the WEB Dubois Review, and the National Political Science Review) and mainstream media (Urbanite Magazine, Salon.com, Africana.com, TheRoot.com, the Washington Post, thegrio.com), and I can regularly be heard on National Public Radio. Recipient of the 2009 Hopkins Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award, my first book Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics (2013 National Conference of Black Political Scientists Best Book Award Winner) was the first book to empirically examine the political effect of hip-hop on black communities. In 2012 I founded the Baltimore Mixtape Project as a vehicle to infuse hip-hop into local progressive politics.
I received my bachelor’s and doctoral degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A proud native of the Detroit area, I am also a husband and a father of five.
