I am a PhD Candidate at Rice University's Department of Political Science and Predoctoral Social Scientist at University of Arizona's School of Government and Public Policy for the 2021-2022 academic year. My research addresses the interaction between law and conflict. To this end, my dissertation examines rebel and incumbent law. I bring my background and expertise in law to bear on an understudied, yet crucial aspect of conflict negotiations: the compatibility of adversaries’ legal preferences. This underexplored dimension of conflict negotiation affects not only the success of incorporating rebels into a new post-conflict government, but more importantly, it demonstrates how incompatible legal preferences can lead adversaries back to the battlefield. Within my dissertation, I develop a legal system incompatibility framework that focuses on rebel and incumbent legal preferences over particular issue domains (e.g., property rights, source of law, procedural justice, and recognition of social diversity). This theoretical framework motivates my data collection effort, which is the first cross-national dyadic dataset of rebel and incumbent legal systems during armed conflict from 1945-2016. I am also collecting primary source data from archival repositories to conduct qualitative case studies. This dissertation has the potential to provide an explanation that may subsume theoretical explanations of intrastate conflict – including ethnic fractionalization/marginalization and commitment problems – and has important policy implications for state-building. It has been fully funded by the National Science Foundation Law and Science Program and Rice University's Social Sciences Research Institute.
In addition to the aforementioned scholarship firmly rooted in the realm of law and its implications for conflict, I have also conducted and published research addressing dynamics of violence and non-state governance during civil wars. More specifically, I explore issues ranging from nonstate governance, indiscriminate violence and terrorism, natural resource extraction, and the use of justice mechanisms. Additionally, I examine how variations in legal frameworks, particularly legal enforcement mechanisms, affect the enforceability of economic sanctions. I use both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Two of these works have been published in the International Studies Quarterly and Journal of Conflict Resolution.
Aside from research, I have taught my own course on Civil Wars (Spring 2021) and served as a TA in two introductory courses and. I am a 2017-2018 APSA Minority Fellow and a former Visiting Research Fellow at National Defense University. I hold a Master of Arts in Politics from New York University, as well as a Master of Arts in Global Affairs and a Juris Doctor from Florida International University. Prior to academia, I worked for more than ten years as a researcher and analyst in the national security, intelligence and investigations, and legal fields. I draw on the expertise I developed throughout these experiences, which include fieldwork in Latin America, when examining political phenomena.
I am also the founder of the Minorities in Social Sciences group at Rice University. With this organization, we seek to push the boundaries of science and increase the representation of minorities in academia and provide mentorship to underrepresented and underprivileged high school and college students. Because I seek to expand such institutions throughout academia I have attached my Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement below.
In addition to the aforementioned scholarship firmly rooted in the realm of law and its implications for conflict, I have also conducted and published research addressing dynamics of violence and non-state governance during civil wars. More specifically, I explore issues ranging from nonstate governance, indiscriminate violence and terrorism, natural resource extraction, and the use of justice mechanisms. Additionally, I examine how variations in legal frameworks, particularly legal enforcement mechanisms, affect the enforceability of economic sanctions. I use both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Two of these works have been published in the International Studies Quarterly and Journal of Conflict Resolution.
Aside from research, I have taught my own course on Civil Wars (Spring 2021) and served as a TA in two introductory courses and. I am a 2017-2018 APSA Minority Fellow and a former Visiting Research Fellow at National Defense University. I hold a Master of Arts in Politics from New York University, as well as a Master of Arts in Global Affairs and a Juris Doctor from Florida International University. Prior to academia, I worked for more than ten years as a researcher and analyst in the national security, intelligence and investigations, and legal fields. I draw on the expertise I developed throughout these experiences, which include fieldwork in Latin America, when examining political phenomena.
I am also the founder of the Minorities in Social Sciences group at Rice University. With this organization, we seek to push the boundaries of science and increase the representation of minorities in academia and provide mentorship to underrepresented and underprivileged high school and college students. Because I seek to expand such institutions throughout academia I have attached my Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement below.
| LER DEI Statement |
