Welcome! I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan. I study comparative politics, specifically state and nation-building, authoritarianism, and political violence. My regional focus is Southeast Asia – Myanmar, Indonesia, and Thailand – where I have extensive area knowledge and fieldwork experience. I was a 2019-2020 United States Institute of Peace-Minerva Peace Fellow for my dissertation, “The Politics of Religious Violence in Transitional Regimes: Evidence from Myanmar.” I received an invitation to revise and resubmit an article based on my dissertation in the Journal of Comparative Political Studies. My work on digital activism in post-coup Myanmar is published in the Asian Journal of Comparative Politics and the Journal of Contemporary Asia.
Formerly, I was a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State and led an inter-agency working group on election security and foreign aid during Myanmar’s historic 2015 elections. I also have an MPH and an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Michigan.