Welcome to my webpage!

I am an Associate Instructional Professor in the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Colorado- Boulder in 2014 specializing in International Relations and Comparative Politics.

During the 2020-21 academic year, I was a Visiting Fellow at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) research center at the University of Chicago.

My research focuses on the drivers of and solutions to political extremism across the world with a particular emphasis on terrorism and political violence. I have several related projects underway examining the lethality of suicide terrorism, the effectiveness of organizationally-linked versus lone-wolf terrorist attacks, and the diverse strategies employed by terrorist organizations for increasing the commitment of suicide bombers to their missions. I also study the role gender plays in political extremism and whether counter-terrorism efforts should take gender differences into account. Most recently, I have served as PI for a collaborative research project that explores perceptions and attitudes toward Syrian refugees in Turkey.

My work appears or will appear in Comparative Politics, Terrorism and Political Violence, International Journal of Conflict and Violence, Journal of Political Science Education, and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in international relations and comparative politics such as Introduction to International Relations, Introduction to Comparative Politics, International Security, The Politics of the Middle East, Terrorism and Political Violence, and International Political Economy.

Please select the links above to find out about my research and teaching interests.