I am a PhD candidate at Rice University's Department of Political Science. 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 on the Salvadoran Civil War and peace process from archival repositories in El Salvador and Stanford to conduct an analytic narrative. This study 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.
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.
Aside from research, I have served as a TA in two introductory courses and taught my own course on Civil Wars. 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.
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.
Aside from research, I have served as a TA in two introductory courses and taught my own course on Civil Wars. 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.
