Hello! I’m Nick, a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Syracuse University, where I study public opinion, political psychology, and political communication. My research examines how identities and emotions shape political attitudes and behavior, with a particular focus on LGBTQ political identity in contemporary American politics. 

My dissertation, Rainbow Participation? Assessing the Forces Motivating LGBTQ Participation and Political Identity in the United States explores the contours and consequences of LGBTQ political identity, investigating how group-based considerations like linked fate shape political participation. This project has been awarded the APSA Kenneth Sherrill Prize for the best doctoral dissertation proposal for an empirical study of LGBT topics in political science. My work has been published in PS: Political Science & Politics and The Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication. 

Beyond the dissertation, a related strand of my research addresses how partisanship structures public health attitudes and behavior in polarized political contexts, drawing on original observational and experimental data to trace the contours of public reactions to emerging health threats. Additionally, I serve as a Graduate Research Associate on the U.S. Policy Agendas Project in the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, where I lead a large-scale media coding initiative that tracks policy content in major news coverage. 

I am originally from Brooklyn, New York. Previously, I received a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from Villanova University.