I am a political scientist interested in the intersection of gender, collective identity, and armed groups in contexts of violent conflict and peacebuilding. I also work on issues related to gender, democracy, and international development. My work is situated between feminist international relations, comparative politics, and political sociology.
About Me
I am a PhD candidate and Cambridge Trust Scholar at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS). Throughout my PhD, I have held positions as a Visiting Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, a Civil War Paths Fellow at the University of York, a Visiting Researcher at the Universidad de los Andes, a Junior Fellow at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, and Managing Editor for the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (CRIA). I also teach undergraduate courses related to peace, conflict, politics, and gender.
My dissertation, “‘Revolutionaries do not rape’: Analyzing Grammars of Gendered Violence and Control in the FARC,” examines the relationship between armed group ideology and conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence. Drawing on 10 months of fieldwork in Colombia and 95 extended interviews, I investigate how (ex-)combatants interpret and justify mixed repertoires of gendered violence, which protect women from certain forms of violence while subjecting them to others, through collective ideological frameworks. I conceptualize this violence as a relational, performative, and inherently social process. My dissertation maps the shared intersubjective frameworks that shaped the FARC’s mixed repertoire, showing that FARC combatants interpreted gendered violence through key ideological principles that constructed an image of revolutionary subjects that centered women as essential participants in the insurgency, while simultaneously coercively and violently controlling their bodies to mold them into revolutionary subjects. I further trace how the symbolic and institutional environments in which these frameworks were socialized among combatants impacted practices of compliance and transgression.
In addition to my work on political violence, I also conduct research on gender and democratic politics. My book Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics, co-authored with Saskia Brechenmacher and published with Oxford University Press, documents how international democracy support for gender equality in politics has evolved over the last thirty years and how effective these programs have been. Drawing on research in Kenya, Nepal, Morocco, and Myanmar, we examine the varied methods aid providers use to challenge patriarchal political structures and support local reformers, identify persisting challenges and promising innovations, and make practical recommendations for reform.
Prior to joining Cambridge, I was a policy researcher in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I have also worked with non-profit organizations to reduce group-targeted political violence and promote civic activism, as well as served in various other research and editorial positions. I hold an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a dual-BA in Political Science and International Affairs with a minor in French from the University of Georgia.
My work has been published in Foreign Policy, Just Security, and other outlets.
