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 book--Voter Backlash and Elite Misperception: The Logic of Violence in Electoral Competition (CUP 2023)--analyzes 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. Current projects include work on social norms and ethnic voting; conceptualizing election-related violence; and the effect of law enforcement partisanship on political violence.

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.