My name is William Harkleroad, a political science student at the University of Kansas and the writer behind WillNation, my personal journal for essays, commentary, photography, and reflections on politics, history, geography, culture, travel, and everyday life.

I have always been drawn to the way politics, place, and people shape one another. Whether I am following an election, driving across the country, studying abroad, or photographing a landscape that feels completely different from the one I left behind, I am usually thinking about the same question: why does a place become what it is? That curiosity has taken me from small towns and state capitals to cities overseas, and it continues to shape how I study politics and understand the world around me.

WillNation is not focused on politics alone, nor is it simply a travel diary or photography portfolio. Instead, I write about the intersections between government, history, geography, culture, and everyday life. Sometimes that means examining a political institution or election. Other times it means reflecting on a road trip, a city, a photograph, or an experience abroad that changed the way I saw something familiar.

This site is ultimately a place to document what I see, what I learn, and how my perspective changes along the way. Through WillNation, I hope the writing and photography encourage you to look a little more closely at the places around you, the systems that shape them, and the people who call them home.

willnationwillhark@gmail.com