Update roundup

For the last few months, as I said it would be, blogging has been light. Burnout is a problem for just about anyone that runs a blog, but that has not been a problem for me; I have been frustrated by the number of posts I wanted to write, but simply did not have the time. I think I will soon be able to frequently post again, but other responsibilities keep getting in the way. So here are some of the reasons you haven't heard from me in awhile.

It turned out that two book projects that I thought were on very different schedules both needed to be wrapped up at around the same time. I just submitted the final draft of a book tentatively titled "Demography, Culture, and the Decline of America's Christian Denominations." This book focuses on two questions that have long interested me: secularization and demographic transition. It is obviously an odd book for a political scientist to write, and it will probably do little for my career in the long run, but I figure there is little point in being a scholar if you don't give yourself the freedom to study whatever it is you find interesting. Lexington Books is the publisher. I honestly have no idea when they plan to release the final product.

The other big book project, under contract with Columbia University Press, will be titled "Making Sense of the Alt-Right." The title probably explains the book pretty well. It might be considered a book-length addendum to Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism. It has a similar structure to the aforementioned book, though it is focused on just one ideological category, rather than a broad swath of the right -- and for that reason it is less than half as long. I have a few trusted confidants looking over the manuscript, and I will keep making edits until the final draft is due at the start of next month.

I also have a law review article that should come out later this spring, focusing on the Voting Rights Act. I will have more to say about that as its publication date approaches.

I recently had the opportunity to take part in a fun conversation with Carson Holloway about the Trump campaign and the future of the Republican Party at the new academic webzine Starting Points.

I have a couple of big speaking engagements coming up in the next few months. I will be talking about the Alt-Right at two different venues in New York City in late march, and taking part in an author-meets-his-critics round table discussion (about Right-Wing Critics) in early April at the Western Political Science Association conference in Vancouver, BC. I will post more details about those events in the weeks ahead.

Of course, the biggest news of my life recently (which will probably be of little interest to people who do not know me personally) was the birth of my daughter a couple of weeks ago. For those keeping track, I am trying to fulfill all of these other obligations while juggling a four-year old, a two-year old, and newborn. Oh, and teaching full-time (no such thing as paternity leave if you are a professor). Obviously something had to give, and I suspect I can be forgiven for picking blogging as the thing to cut, for the time being. That said, I hope I can get back to regular updates soon.

And as a final note: I've noticed that this site has been buggy lately. It's always had problems on Internet Explorer (but who cares?), but it seems to be a bit off on Chrome now, as well. When I get a chance, I hope to fix that.