SHORTLE CV

Education
B.A. (summa cum laude), Union College, 2005
Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 2012

Research Fields: Race, Religion, Gender, Immigration, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, Policy Attitudes

Courses: Exit Poll; Public Opinion; Immigration Politics; Experiments; Identity Politics; Religion and Politics; American Federal Government

About me: I am an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Political Science department at the University of Oklahoma, where I study group identity in the context of American political behavior. I also serve as a faculty member for Latinx Studies and Women and Gender Studies. I run OU’s Community Engagement + Experiments Laboratory (CEEL), Oklahoma City’s Community Poll (Exit Poll), and OU’s Democracy Survey of OU freshmen. For fun, I like to lend research support to organizations seeking to increase civic engagement and improve the democratic health of their local communities.

I was a 2024-2025 Public Religion Research Fellow. I am also a non-resident fellow with the Pulaski Institution, a think tank charged with promoting democracy in the American Heartland. 

I was honored to be the 2024 recipient (w. Ana Bracic and Mackenzie Israel-Trummel) of the Southern Political Science Association's Best Overall Paper Award and the Marian Irish Award for Best Paper on Women and Politics. 

My co-authored Cambridge University Press book, The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism in American Politics (2022 – w. Eric L. McDaniel and Irfan Nooruddin), was awarded an "Outstanding Academic Title" distinction from the American Library Association's Choice Reviews. In it, we examine the relationship between American religious exceptionalism and prejudicial and antidemocratic attitudes.

​I am part of a trans-disciplinary and cross-university research team (Appalachian State,  OU, the University of Mississippi, UT San Antonio, and UNCW) that uses community engaged approaches to assist with rural renewal efforts in the US. Under the guidance of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, our Rural Talent Lab study will have us work with state agencies to examine how to improve educational and employment outcomes for low-income rural Americans (across five states). This is an Ascendium Education Group-funded project.  

At the doctoral level, I teach courses on group identity, public opinion/political psychology, and American political behavior.