I am an interdisciplinary social scientist whose research research agenda is centered on understanding how to build socially healthy, peaceful communities and how to maximize social protection and welfare across the life course. My research sits at the intersection of peace and conflict, sociology, and social policy. I’ve published work on aid and social protection in fragile states, and I recently authored a reference book with Bloomsbury Academic aimed at general readers, released in February 2026.
I’m currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research (MZES) at the University of Mannheim in Germany. I am currently funded by the Baden-Württemburg Stiftung (Foundation) and am pursuing a project within the sociology department of the center that focuses on “European societies and their integration”. My project, Barriers and Bridges: The Architecture of Social Cohesion, examines the relationship between the built environment in cities and social cohesion — in short, to what extent the physical spaces we inhabit influence intergroup contact to produces divergent social cohesion outcomes.
Methodologically, I am currently using computational approaches using linked survey and geodata, though I have previously used qualitative and mixed methods, and I am currently learning approaches to leverage digital trace and text data as well. Further, I was recently selected to participate in the KODAQs Data Quality Academy, a competitive data science training program 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 the LSE Studentship Funding Scheme and before that, a Master’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, concentrating on sub-state conflict and political regimes, and a BA Honours in Geography from Concordia University in Montreal. Since 2019, I’ve worked as a conflict and development researcher serving US government agencies, the World Bank, and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. I have lived and worked across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa and am fluent in English and French, speak intermediate Spanish, and am currently trying to improve my German.