About me

Welcome! I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. My dissertation research has been supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

My work examines the intersection of borders, human security, and state-making in international politics. I focus on local border communities, introducing original concepts and data to explain how they are navigating the global trend toward walls and other forms of hardening. The empirical tools that I use span geospatial analytics, design-based causal inference, and qualitative fieldwork. An article based on this work — “The Local Politics of Border Hardening: Transnationality, Resistance, and Accommodation” — is forthcoming at International Studies Quarterly.

Prior to my graduate studies, I received a B.A. in Political Science, History, and Arabic from Florida Atlantic University.