About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Boston University. I study comparative politics with a focus on democracy, political violence, and electoral accountability.  I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science at Yale University, where my dissertation was awarded the APCG-Lynne Rienner Best Dissertation in African Politics in 2017 by the African Politics Conference Group, a section of the American Political Science Association and African Studies Association.

My first book--Voter Backlash and Elite Misperception: The Logic of Violence in Electoral Competition (CUP 2023)--analyzed why politicians use violence as an electoral tactic and how it affects voting behavior. I have also written on ethnic politics, electoral accountability, survey research methods, and political polarization in Africa, India, and the U.S. My second book project studies the role of ethnic politics and polarization in the process of democratization in Africa. I also have ongoing projects on the effects of reserving seats for women on women's electability in unreserved seats and on the impact of different forms of candidate selection.

I previously worked on global health policy research at the Center for Global Development and in the microfinance sector in Tanzania, and I've served as a consultant for the Transparency and Accountability Initiative and MSI.