Welcome!

I am an Assistant Professor Assistant Professor in Political Science at Northern Illinois University where I teach comparative politics and qualitative methods courses, including Introduction to Comparative Politics, Women and Politics and African Politics.

I received my PhD from the University of Toronto, in the Department of Political Science, where I was a direct entry student, having previously completed my B.A. in Economics and Political Science at the University of British Columbia. My research interests are focussed on social policy, inequality and the ethics of field research.

My book project, The State at the Margins: State Social Assistance and Citizenship in Rural Kenya and Tanzania, explores the regional uptake of cash transfers in East Africa and how state social assistance impacts citizens’ perceptions and practices of citizenship and state legitimacy.

While conducting research in Tanzania for my PhD, I was a fellow at the Economic and Social Research Foundation in Dar es Salaam. I was formerly the vice-curator of the Toronto Hub of World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper Community. 

Prior to my starting my PhD I worked as a filmmaker and communications intern with the United Nations Development Program in Egypt and Serbia and was the director at the non-profit organisation Conversations for Change, which engaged Canadian youth on issues of social change.