About Me
I am an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of Graduate Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I received my PhD in political science at Emory University in 2010. Before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt, I was an assistant professor at the University of Alabama for three years and then an assistant professor at the University of California, Merced for five years.
My research centers on the effects of international legal institutions on the strategic relationship between government repression and dissent activities, with particular attention to the methodological implications for causal inference that stem from strategic conflict behavior. Different projects contribute to scholarship on international human rights institutions, law, and practice; domestic conflict between national governments and groups from the population; international governance and legal institutions; institutional solutions to bargaining and cooperation problems, and political methodology. Game theory and quantitative statistical analysis are the primary methods I use to approach inference.
[Here’s a comic that explains it better.]
I have published articles in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, the Journal of Peace Research, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, the Review of International Organizations, and the Journal of Theoretical Politics. My first book, co-authored with Courtenay R. Conrad, is published with Oxford University Press.
See my profiles on:
Google Scholar
Women Also Know Stuff
Bridging the Gap
photo credit: Freckled Finch Photography
I’m also the co-owner of an art studio that translates academic research into comics and beautiful illustrations to reach non-specialist audiences. Check out Sequential Potential here.
My Social Scientific Community
Recent Activity
Co-hosted workshop on Nonviolent Repression at Oxford University with Katerina Tertytchnaya, May 2024
Presented research at the Comparative Politics Annual Workshop at Washington University in St Louis, April 2024
Presented research at the Political Economy of Conflict Workshop at Vanderbilt University, April 2024
Awarded mini-residency in the political science department at Louisiana State University, February 2024
Received NSF funding to host a Research Experience for Undergrads at Vanderbilt in summers of 2023-2025: Accountability, Behavior, and Conflict in Democratic Politics, co-directed with Sharece Thrower and Liz Zechmeister
New chapter on using theory to develop a research design in the Handbook of Research Methods in International Relations, edited by R. Joseph Huddleston, Thomas Jamieson, and Patrick James
Shared tips for applying to a PhD program in political science in virtual roundtable hosted by Kathleen Cunningham
New chapter on human rights treaties, monitoring, and enforcement in the Human Rights: Theory and Practice textbook, 4th edition, edited by Michael Goodhart
POSITIONS IN THE DISCIPLINE
Program Chair for the Society of Political Methodology 2022 conference at Washington University in St Louis
Chair & member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the Formal Theory section of APSA 2022-present
Co-host of the Formal Models in International Relations conference, Vanderbilt University, February 2020
International Relations editor at the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy (JPIPE), September 2019 - present
Member of the editorial board for the American Political Science Review.
COMMUNITIES
Vanderbilt Political Science
My home department
Research on Conflict and Collective Action (ROCCA) Lab
Vanderbilt political science research lab including undergraduate and graduate researchers on faculty research projects
Visions in Methodology
Organization to help women advance in the field of political methodology
Peace Science Society (International)
Professional organization for scholars of peace and conflict
Women in Conflict Studies
Network of women studying peace and conflict
Conflict Processes Section
American Political Science Association
Journeys in World Politics
Workshop to assist female political scientists matriculate, land tenure-track jobs, and achieve tenure in the field of international relations
Society for Political Methodology
Society for researchers who use formal and quantitative methodologies in their political science study
Sequential Potential Comics
I am the co-owner of a small scientific communication business that creates comics to share academic research with broad audiences
“Science can only ascertain what is,
but not what should be,
and outside of its domain
value judgements of all kinds remain necessary.”