Hello!

I am an assistant professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University. I study how citizens and non-state organizations influence the state-building process in contentious and polarized contexts. Most of my work focuses on post-conflict states. 

My book (Governing After War) explores post-war statebuilding when rebels win civil war. My other projects address three broad questions: (1) how the state builds capacity and exerts control; (2) how citizens exercise agency and conditional engagement during the state-building process; and (3) how mediating factors—historical legacies, embedded organizations, and (mis)information environments—shape state legitimacy and citizen trust.

My research has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, World Politics, Political Science Research and Methods, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, and others. I was a 2018-2019 Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). I received my PhD in Government from Harvard in 2020. From 2020-2023, I was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.