ABOUT ME
My research focuses on environmental politics and policymaking, political economy of development, distributive politics, and statistical methods. My broader research agenda studies the politics of natural disasters, natural resource management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
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I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University during 2020-2022. I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University during 2019-2020.
Climate change increasingly shapes political relationships within and across countries. My research applies core political questions of distributive politics, collective action, and democratic accountability to critical policy issues in development and the environment, especially water policy and climate change. Through in-depth applied field research, causal inference methodologies, and rigorous statistical analysis, I provide a deeper awareness of local social and political realities and their influence on sustainable development.
My work is forthcoming or has been published in American Political Science Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Political Analysis, Comparative Political Studies, Global Environmental Change, and WIREs Water, among others. I have received generous funding from multiple sources including the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays Program, and Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP). I have conducted extensive applied research in Brazil (2016-2017 and 2022) using field experiments, survey experiments, original household surveys, analysis of climate and electoral data, and qualitative methods.
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I received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2019. I received a Master of International Affairs (MIA) in 2013 from UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy & Strategy (formerly IR/PS). I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 2008 with a B.A. in Human Biology.
I have current or former affiliations with the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) - Research Coordination Network (RCN), Princeton Behavioral Science for Policy Lab (BSPL), Princeton Brazil LAB, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) in Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil, and Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) in Fortaleza - CE, Brazil.
EDUCATION
2013 - 2019
Columbia University
Ph.D. Political Science (2019)
M.Phil. Political Science (2016)
M.A. Political Science (2014)
2010 - 2013
University of California, San Diego
Master of International Affairs
2004 - 2008
Stanford University
B.A. Human Biology
Phi Beta Kappa