Political Science

Dr. Bird is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. Her research specializes on how law interacts with public policy. She focuses specifically on agenda setting in political institutions and the role of elite interests legal-political processes. Her book project focuses on the role of the Office of the Solicitor General at the certiorari stage of Supreme Court litigation. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed outlets including Political Research Quarterly, Journal of Law and Courts, Interest Groups & Advocacy, American Politics Research and Polity. She is also the Director of the Bird Law and Public Poliicy (LAPP) Research Lab and an Associate Director of the Policy Agendas Project (PAP). She has been a licensed member of the Oklahoma Bar Association since 2016.

Dr. Brooke Coe earned her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She conducts research and teaches at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations, and her interests include comparative regional law and organizations in the global South, state sovereignty and international intervention, security governance, and human rights institutions. Her 2019 book on comparative regionalism, Sovereignty in the South: Intrusive Regionalism in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, traces the evolution of state sovereignty since decolonization. Her 2023 Cambridge Element (co-authored with Kathryn Nash) investigates how security and human rights governance labor is divided between the United Nations and regional organizations.

Her current research projects address the recent decline in security governance activities of ECOWAS; the African Union's campaign for UN financing of African peace support operations; and the sources and mechanisms of African influence on the UN Security Council.

Dr. Coe is a recipient of the 2023 CAS Early Career Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence and the 2025 OSU Distinguished Early Career Faculty Award.

Updated cv available here.

Research Interests:

Regionalism in the Global South (Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia), International Law & Organizations, Human Rights, Peace and Security

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. I study American politics, and my research focuses on questions of political behavior, especially those related to competitiveness, public opinion, epistemic hubris, intellectualism, anti-intellectualism, American populism, voting, ideology, partisanship, polarization, and the political impacts of education. Some of this work has been featured in outlets like The American Political Science Review, American Politics Research, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Public Opinion Quarterly.

Dr. Holley Hansen is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research focuses on communal conflict, political violence, and conflict management. Her recent work examines right-wing terrorism in the United States, United Nations peacekeeping and terrorism, and the role of women in post-conflict transitions. Her research has been published in Conflict Management and Peace Science, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and International Interactions. 

She is also highly engaged in service to the department, university, and her broader scholarly community. She served as President of the International Studies Association Midwest Region (2025), a former Chair of the APSA Committee on the Status of First Generation Scholars in the Profession (2023-2024), and was elected as a Member-at-Large to the ISA Governing Council (2025-27) and Executive Committee (2025-26). 

Research Interests:

Conflict, Conflict Mediation, Ethnic & Communal Politics, Comparative Democracy, Technology & Teaching

I teach and research topics in American political institutions, public policy processes, and methodology. I am interested in how unequal representation and scarce resources in American state legislatures affects policy innovation and diffusion in the U.S. federal system. I am also interested in how the policies set by state legislatures shape political and economic inequality.

I am passionate about access to quality civic education in the United States. Professor Eve Ringsmuth and I have an active research agenda to improve the delivery of civic education in higher education institutions and to better understand student growth in politically-consequential learning outcomes.

My research has been published in Perspectives on Politics, Policy Studies Journal, Political Research Quarterly, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Journal of Public Policy, Policy & Politics, American Politics Research, and Journal of Political Science Education, among others.

Dr. Landry is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. His research research combines formal theory, statistical modeling, and case studies to examine the politics of international conflict processes. He focuses on the domestic politics of international security and military cooperation, how the politics of military spending shapes leaders' wartime decisions, and the political and economic constraints governments face when expanding or mobilizing their military. His book project examines how fiscal and political constraints shape the goals leaders choose to pursue during war.

Seth C. McKee is a Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. Previously, McKee taught at Texas Tech University (2013-2020), the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (2006-2013), and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2005-2006). He earned his doctorate in Government from the University of Texas in 2005, a master's degree in Economics (1998), and a bachelor's degree in Political Science (1996) from Oklahoma State University. McKee is a scholar of American politics with expertise in Southern Politics, Political Parties, Political Behavior (campaigns and elections, political participation, and public opinion), American Institutions (Presidency and Congress), and Redistricting.

Dr. McKee has published numerous articles on such topics as political participation, public opinion, vote choice, redistricting, election administration, party switching, minority representation, strategic voting behavior, and state legislative voting behavior. McKee is the author of Republican Ascendancy in Southern U.S. House Elections (Routledge 2010), the editor of Jigsaw Puzzle Politics in the Sunshine State (University Press of Florida 2015), author of the textbook, The Dynamics of Southern Politics: Causes and Consequences (CQ Press 2019), and coauthor of Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South: The Untold Story (University of South Carolina Press 2022). McKee serves on the editorial boards of American Politics Research, Political Research Quarterly, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, and is a former Editor in Chief of Political Research Quarterly.

A prolific writer and frequent political commentator, McKee has a passion for studying American elections.

I am a Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University.

My research focuses on a wide range of topics related to law and courts, American political institutions, and civic education. I am especially interested in the process by which federal judges are nominated and confirmed and in investigating the role of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court. I am also broadly interested in developing strategies for civic education courses that promote student learning and political efficacy.

My co-authored book, It's Not Personal: Politics and Policy in Lower Court Confirmation Hearings, examines how senators use lower court confirmation hearings to advocate preferred policies and increase their chance of re-election while also performing one of their core constitutional functions. My research has been published in American Politics Research, International Studies Quarterly, Judicature, Political Behavior, and Political Research Quarterly.

I am the 2013 recipient of the Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence and the 2018 Professor of the Year by the Oklahoma Political Science Association. In 2020 I received the Regents' Distinguished Teaching Award from Oklahoma State University. I am also the 2022 recipient of Oklahoma State University's Leave the Ladder Down award, which recognizes mentorship and encouragement of others.

Research Interests:

Law and Courts; Judicial Politics; U.S. Supreme Court; Oral Argument; Judicial Confirmation Process; Supreme Court Legitimacy; American Political Institutions; Separation of Powers; Inter-branch Relations; Civic Education; Learning Analytics

Howard Sanborn is Associate Dean for Faculty and Graduate Affairs and Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma State University; he joined the OSU faculty in 2022. 

Dr. Sanborn has published pieces in several highly-respected journals, including the British Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, European Political Science Review, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties, Journal of Legislative Studies, Korea Observer, and the Asian Journal of Comparative Politics. His research has focused on the support for, and development of, democracy around the world, with a specific focus on Asia. In 2019, Dr. Sanborn was named a Core Fulbright Scholar, investigating legislative politics in Hong Kong while in residence at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during the anti-ELAB protests that took place in the city that summer and fall. His public commentary has been featured on the Monkey Cage blog of the Washington Post, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and on With Good Reason, broadcast to National Public Radio stations across the United States.

Dr. Sanborn has taught several courses on the politics of China and East Asia, as well as on democracy, American government, and political economy, and has published numerous manuscripts on effective pedagogical approaches. He has co-led students on study abroad trips to China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia, and Belgium, and has worked with them as part of individual research projects in Italy, Scotland, and Japan. He has mentored several undergraduate and graduate students, who have been recognized with awards, such as the Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr '26 Research Award and the James J. Hentz Award for Best National Security Minor Thesis, and grants, including multiple Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) and Advancing Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (AURCA) grants.

Off-campus, Dr. Sanborn has worked as a teacher at the Payne County Detention Center HiSET-Social Studies program, funded by an Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences' Community Engagement Grant (PI: Kathryn Weinland, Ph.D). He is a proud member of the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations and the Oklahoma State University Theatre Circle, and is an Oklahoma State University Art Advocate. He is also a co-facilitator of the American Civics Course Requirement Working Group of the American Political Science Association and is member of the Midwest Political Science Association's Department Chairs Caucus.

Prior to joining the faculty at OSU, Dr. Sanborn taught at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) from 2008 until 2022. Originally from Staten Island, NY, Dr. Sanborn received his B.A. in Politics from W&L University in 2001 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Iowa in 2009.

Research Interests:

Democracy; Education and democratization; East Asia; China; political participation; protest