Biographical Information

(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 Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas since August 2008, after prior teaching appointments at Millsaps College (Jackson, Miss.), Duke University (Durham, N.C.), Saint Louis University (St. Louis, Mo.), and Tulane University (New Orleans, La.).

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. His interest in politics began at an early age; from 1984 to 1991, he lived in England where his father was serving as an officer in the United States Air Force, where he developed an interest in both American and comparative politics.

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.