I am an empirical social scientist whose research asks how cohesive, peaceful communities are built and sustained, and how social protection and welfare can be strengthened across the life course. My work sits at the intersection of sociology, social policy, and peace and conflict studies.
I’m currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) at the University of Mannheim in Germany, funded by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (Foundation). I am based in the Centre’s sociology department, European Societies and their Integration, within its Social Inequality research area. My project, Barriers and Bridges: Contact and the Architecture of Social Cohesion, examines the relationship between the built environment in cities and social cohesion — in short, the extent to which the physical spaces we inhabit shape intergroup contact and, consequently, produce divergent social cohesion outcomes.
My doctoral research examined how host governments shape the distribution of humanitarian assistance and protection within their territories, and what that means for state–society relations and for inequalities in access to aid among conflict-affected populations. It draws on fieldwork in Cameroon and now forms the basis of a book proposal and several articles. I’ve also published work on aid and social protection in fragile states, and I recently authored a reference book with Bloomsbury aimed at general readers, released in February 2026.
Methodologically, I use qualitative and mixed methods, and am increasingly incorporating computational approaches using linked survey and geodata. Since 2009 I have conducted interview-based fieldwork across Africa, Latin America, West Asia and Europe — in Madagascar, the Sahel, Cameroon and Colombia among others — much of it in conflict-affected and fragile settings. I was also recently selected to participate in the KODAQS Data Quality Academy, a competitive data science training programme for early-career researchers run by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, focused on data quality and the rigorous use of social science data.
I hold a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where I was supported by an LSE International Relations Department studentship; before that, a Master’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a BA Honours from the Department of Geography, Planning & Environment at Concordia University in Montréal. Since 2018 I’ve worked as a conflict and development researcher for US government agencies, the World Bank, and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. I have lived and worked across the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and I’m fluent in English and French, speak intermediate Spanish, and am currently trying to improve my German.