Welcome!

I am Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI. I earned both my Ph.D. (2024) and M.A. (2020) in political science from the University of Maryland. I earned my B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in political science from the University of Tennessee in 2017. At Tennessee, I was also a graduate of the Chancellor’s Honors Program and completed the Department of Political Science’s honors program.

My research is broadly situated in American politics with specific foci in representation, interest groups, legislative studies, and polarization. I am also interested in quantitative approaches to measuring interest group organization, strategy, and efficacy. My dissertation was written about the importance of issue space diversity and density for the formation, longevity, and political activities of interest groups. In it, I presented a theoretical framework arguing that groups do not exist in isolation but are part of a larger tapestry where they interact with other groups informally to achieve their goals. My work has been published or is forthcoming in Political Science Research and Methods, Political Research Quarterly, Interest Groups & Advocacy, and Pursuit.

I view teaching as both an immense privilege and responsibility. I approach pedagogy with mixed-methods in the classroom, blending traditional lecture with less traditional modes of learning. Beyond the curriculum, my goal is to get each student as interested in the topic as I am.

You can contact me via email at thightower@bryant.edu.