University of Oxford
Welcome! I am a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. I received my PhD in 2024 from the University of Washington. I received an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics in 2016.
I study how nonstate actors use violence, adapt to shifting social orders, and provide governance in the context of political violence and organized crime. Specifically, I lie at the intersection of international relations, comparative politics, and political economy to explore questions related to cycles of violence, peace, and civil resistance in areas of little to no state capacity. Methodologically, I explore these issues using causal models, with the specific design and method changing given the tool that best fits the research puzzle, using both quantitative and qualitative data. My research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Perspectives on Politics.
Before pursuing a PhD, I worked in the non-profit sector and the public sector. I was a program analyst for an NGO that cleared land of unexploded ordnances and supported community-led development projects in Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam. I then supported the International Counterproliferation Program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense as a maritime analyst and lead national security analyst assessing the threats and risks of weapons of mass destruction in the African, European, and Indo-Pacific regions.