I am an Assistant Professor at Ripon College’s Department of Political Science. I hold a Ph.D. from Washington State University’s School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs.

I specialize in both Comparative Politics and International Relations. My research centers on civil conflict processes, rebel group behavior, and Middle East and African politics. My dissertation presents a relational theory of rebel group cooperation, examining the social, structural, and environmental factors that shape levels of integration between cooperating parties.

My work has been published in Political Psychology, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Civil Wars, and the Afrobarometer Working Papers Series. My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Carnegie Foundation of New York, and Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy. I have conducted fieldwork in Zimbabwe, focusing on ethnic communities to examine whether external interventions can reshape post-conflict social trust in southern Africa. I have also worked on a USAID-funded project regarding armed group recruitment and mobilization in northern Ghana.

I have professionally focused on immigration policies, rising religious extremism, and trans-border security. I was an editorial assistant at Cardiff University’s European Documentation Center, focusing on the European Union (EU)’s response to the refugee influx from Middle Eastern countries and the spread of jihadist elements in Iraq and Syria. I have also completed an internship program at Sapienza University of Rome concerning the EU’s domestic and foreign policy instruments regarding the refugee crisis.

Haka Park and Harare Botanical Garden, Zimbabwe