I am an Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. I received my PhD in Political Science in 2024 from the University of Notre Dame.
I am a scholar of democracy, conflict, and migration, with a regional focus on Latin America. My research investigates the causes of political and criminal violence and their impact on democratic institutions, intergroup relations, and policy outcomes—from immigrants' integration into host societies and citizens' support for state repression to criminal governance, democratic accountability, and societal mobilization for transitional justice. My work leverages a range of research designs and data sources, including field and natural experiments, large-scale surveys, qualitative fieldwork, and administrative data.
My first book project examines how political elites legitimize human rights abuses against stigmatized groups—and how victims' organizations mobilize demands for justice to hold politicians accountable in unequal societies marked by pervasive impunity. This project received the 2025 Best Dissertation Awards in Political Psychology and Experimental Research from the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Kellogg Institute's Best Dissertation on Democracy and Human Development Award, and an Honorable Mention from the International Society of Political Psychology. My second book project (with Abby Córdova) explores the positive role of immigrants’ agency in countering misperceptions and promoting support for inclusionary policies.
My work has been published in Perspectives on Politics, Political Psychology, Party Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly [2x], and Research and Politics, and is under advance contract with Cambridge University Press. It has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), APSA, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP), and the Kellogg Institute, among others. I was also a 2023-2024 Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar, a USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholar, and the 2023 APSA Political Psychology Distinguished Junior Scholar.
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