Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Politics & Global Studies at the University of Virginia, where I teach classes on global development, state-society relations, local politics, and field methods. My research is focused on local citizen-state relations and their consequences for human and social welfare. My work is motivated by two basic questions. How can governments – and local officials in particular – be held more accountable, to better respond to and serve the needs of citizens? And how can citizens actively and effectively engage and make demands on the state, between and beyond elections?