Welcome
Welcome to my website! I am an Assistant Professor in the Political Science department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, I was an assistant professor at the University of Iowa. I received my PhD from the University of Maryland in 2013, and was a pre-doctoral research fellow at the Brookings Institution for the 2012-2013 academic year. I also spent the Fall 2011 semester as a visiting pre-doctoral scholar at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University.
My research and teaching interests include civil and interstate conflict, human rights and human security, the role of international law in conflict processes, and the intersection of these topics. My main current research examines the role of rebel and state leaders in a variety of civil conflict processes, using data I collected on all rebel and state leaders in civil conflicts between 1980 and 2011.
In other work, I examine a variety of related questions concerning the role of international humanitarian law in preventing civilian targeting during war, international law's role in generating sustainable territorial changes in the context of interstate territorial disputes, the determinants of civil conflict onset and escalation, and the impact of International Criminal Court examinations and investigations on the trajectory of ongoing civil wars.
My research and teaching interests include civil and interstate conflict, human rights and human security, the role of international law in conflict processes, and the intersection of these topics. My main current research examines the role of rebel and state leaders in a variety of civil conflict processes, using data I collected on all rebel and state leaders in civil conflicts between 1980 and 2011.
In other work, I examine a variety of related questions concerning the role of international humanitarian law in preventing civilian targeting during war, international law's role in generating sustainable territorial changes in the context of interstate territorial disputes, the determinants of civil conflict onset and escalation, and the impact of International Criminal Court examinations and investigations on the trajectory of ongoing civil wars.
