(Note to visitors: this is primarily provided as background for non-academic readers and the media; political scientists should refer to my academic C.V. instead.)

Dr. Christopher N. Lawrence received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Mississippi at Oxford in December 2003. He has been an assistant professor of political science at Macon State College* since August 2012; he previously held visiting (non-tenure-track) professor positions at Millsaps College (Jackson, Miss.), Duke University (Durham, N.C.), Saint Louis University (St. Louis, Mo.), Tulane University (New Orleans, La.), and Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Va.), and was assistant professor of political science at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas from 2008 through 2011.

Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Dr. Lawrence earned a B.A. in political science at the University of Memphis after additional undergraduate studies at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Ind.) and Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.). His interest in politics began at an early age; from 1984 to 1991, he lived in England, where as a student in British schools he developed an interest in both American and comparative politics. He is a 1993 graduate of Forest High School (Ocala, Fla.), and considers Memphis and Ocala his "hometowns."

His research primarily focuses on mass political behavior—how people think about political issues and how they participate in politics—in the United States and other democracies. His doctoral dissertation, The Impact of Political Sophistication on the Decision-Making Processes of Voters, is an inquiry into how voters’ political knowledge affects the way in which they think about political issues and make decisions on how to vote.

Dr. Lawrence also has advanced training in statistical analysis of social scientific data, and was the recipient of the inaugural Warren E. Miller Scholarship in quantitative methodology from ICPSR at the University of Michigan. He was also named the Social Sciences scholar of the year at TAMIU for the 2010 calendar year.

* Macon State College is expected to become the main campus of a new institution, Middle Georgia State College, effective January 2013.