Welcome to my website. I am currently an academic year lecturer at Santa Clara University. I graduated in 2017 with a PhD in Political Science from the University of Missouri. I am broad interested in international relations with a focus on human rights, terrorism, international law, security, and public opinion as it relates to foreign policy. Specifically, my research examines the overlap between conflict and respect for human rights, as well as state support for violent groups in other states. My other main research project is the Most Important Problems Dataset, which tracks issue attention at the individual-level in the US from 1939 until 2015. To learn more about my research or my teaching interests, please check out the rest of the website or contact me at cheffington@scu.edu.