Welcome! My research examines political and criminal violence and democratic backsliding, with a regional focus on Latin America. I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Xavier University of Louisiana, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in New Orleans, Louisiana. I completed my PhD in Political Science at Brown University in 2023. I was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR) at Tulane University (2023-2025), a Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for US-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego (2021-23), a Peace Scholar Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (2021-22), and an Emerging Scholar awarded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (2021-22). My research has been published in Political Science Research and Methods, PS: Political Science and Politics, the Journal of Peace Research, and Political Behavior.
In 2017, I co-founded the Democratic Erosion Consortium. The Consortium is a partnership of researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners committed to marshaling evidence and learning to address the growing crisis of democratic erosion worldwide.
In addition to my substantive areas of interest, I have ongoing collaborative projects to evaluate and improve research ethics in violent contexts, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).
Before graduate school, I earned a BA in Romance Languages & Literatures and Studies of Women, Gender, & Sexuality from Harvard College, magna cum laude. My undergraduate studies focused on queer and feminist prose, poetry, and performance art under conditions of political violence and repression in the Americas. I attended K-12 public schools in Eugene, Oregon.
In addition to Mexico and the US, I have studied or conducted research in Colombia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Chile, and Peru.