Hans Noel's research is concerned with political coalitions, political parties and ideology, with a focus on the United States. He teaches on parties, elections, political history and political methodology, including the department's Ph.D. methods sequence. Noel is the co-author (with Marty Cohen, David Karol and John Zaller) of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform (2008, University of Chicago Press), which argues that the party leaders maintain control of the nomination process, even though the system is open to ordinary voters through primaries. Noel is also working on a policy-centered general theory of political parties and on the application of social network analysis to political coalitions and coordination. He is completing a book on the role of ideology in party politics. The dissertation treats ideology and party as alternative and often conflicting ways of organizing politics. These alternatives influence each other, but ideologues can be the stronger influence, both indirectly, by defining the political landscape in which parties compete, and directly, by capturing control of various party organs. Noel was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan from 2008 to 2010, where he studied Prohibition politics. Before coming to Georgetown, Noel was a fellow in the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 1994 to 1997, Noel worked for a daily newspaper in Virginia. He is the co-director/co-producer of the award-winning feature film "The Rest of Your Life."