I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California - Merced. 

My research focuses on the legacies of political violence and political responses to conditions of vulnerability more broadly. This work brings me into conversation with research in comparative politics, international relations, and political psychology.

My work is published or forthcoming at journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, The Economic Journal, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and PLOS ONE. It has also been featured in popular press outlets like the Washington Post: Monkey Cage and The Conversation. 

My work has received financial support from organizations such as the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Most recently, my co-PIs (Allen Hicken, Tom Pepinsky, Dan Slater) and I received a four-year multimillion dollar grant through the Department of Defense (DoD) - Minerva Research Initiative, to study social cohesion across the South China Sea region in the context of escalating great power competition between the U.S. and China.

I am a Research Affiliate at the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and the Center for Analytic Political Engagement (CAPE), and a Visiting Research Fellow at The Center for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. Prior to joining UCM, I was a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow (2022 - 2023) in the Government Department at Cornell University. I completed my PhD in Political Science at the University of Michigan, an MSc. in Economic History (Research) at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a B.A. in Economics and History at Middlebury College. I am also an alumnus of the United World Colleges initiative.