Politics and Popular Culture.

Publications:

“Silence in the Stands: Assessing the Impact of Russian State-Linked “Sportswashing on Online Fan Behavior Following the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine” (Social Science Quarterly, 2025), with Beatrice Magistro and Kevin Aslett.

This paper investigates whether state-linked sportswashing can mitigate public scrutiny over human rights abuses by analyzing over 700,000 tweets from Chelsea F.C. supporters—using a fine-tuned BERT model and generalized synthetic control methods—to reveal that following Roman Abramovich’s relinquishment of club control, these fans were less likely than others to discuss the invasion, support Ukraine, or criticize Russia.

“Telling My Sons How Angel Reese Stood Toe to Toe with the KKK and Won”: Colorblind Racism and Intersectionality in Sports Discourse on Social Media” (Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2025), with Shahill Parsons, Ian Kennedy & Quinesha Bentley.

This paper investigates how colorblind racism, intersectionality, and racially coded language shape sports discourse on Twitter during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship by contrasting the treatment of Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, revealing that entrenched racial and gender biases lead to differential perceptions of similar behaviors while also sparking a counter-discourse that supports Reese against prevailing racist frames.

“Racial Bias in Fans and Officials: Evidence from the Serie A” (Sociology, 2023) - with Beatrice Magistro

This working paper uses a novel dataset of over 6,400 player-year observations to examine whether darker-skinned players have been biased against in the form of foul, yellow card, and ejection (red card) decisions between 2009 and 2020. We find evidence of bias against darker-skinned players and suggestive evidence that this bias is at least partially induced by fans using a discontinuity in stadium attendance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Media Coverage: The Guardian. Corriere. Lavoce. Slate.

Papers, Blog Posts and Reports:

“Digitalization, Superstar-Economics, and Major League Baseball” (PE Forum, 2020) - with Nicolas Wittstock

This blog post examines concentration during the Fourth Industrial Revolution by detailing the spread of income-share agreements across a range of new and extant industries.

Working Projects:

“The Backfire Effect and the Paris Olympics” (Forthcoming)

This paper investigates whether repeated factchecking interventions on Olympic Games-related social media posts lead to backfire effects, finding that while individual misperceptions are not reinforced, a consensus backfire effect emerges as participants increasingly believe others continue to accept debunked misinformation, thereby offering insights for factchecking strategies and the role of group dynamics.