Hi! I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and the Aung San Suu Kyi Endowed Chair in Asian Democracy at the University of Louisville. I study the political economy of development with a regional focus on South Asia, and a substantive emphasis on religion, gender, party politics, and democratization. Welcome to my website!

My research examines the underlying causes of the ascendance of majoritarian and populist movements, and their implications for inter-group relations and political inclusion of marginalized groups, particularly women and ethnic minorities. Parallel research agendas investigate the dissemination and sustenance of political ideologies, as well as the links between electoral institutions and democratic health.

I am currently working on a book project on how religiously conservative parties mobilize women. This research has received several awards, including best dissertation awards from the American Political Science Association’s organized sections in Political Economy (Mancur Olson award, 2024); Religion and Politics (Aaron Wildavsky award, 2024); Political Communication (Thomas E. Patterson award, 2024); and Women, Gender, and Politics (2024). Prior to this, I co-authored a meta-analysis of six field experiments on information and accountability which was published in Science Advances, and as a chapter in Information, Accountability, and Cumulative Learning: Lessons from Metaketa I (Cambridge University Press), adjudged as the Best Book by the APSA’s Experimental Research section.

During AY 2023-24, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. I earned my PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 2023. My research has been supported by the APSA/NSF dissertation improvement grant, the Weiss Family Fund, the J-PAL Governance Initiative, the Global Religion Research Initiative, the Governance and Local Development Program, and internal grants from UC Berkeley.