My research and teaching both center on the politics of urban poverty and gender inequality in the Global South — especially India. My research falls into three related areas: 1.) explaining how urban poverty and informality shape political behavior, 2.) explaining how gender inequality, especially how it intersects with urban poverty, produces disparate political behavior for men and women, and 3.) cutting across both, innovating data collection and methods to improve how scholars and policymakers understand and respond to these challenges. I teach courses focused on international development, urban poverty, gender and politics, comparative political behavior in the Global South, and research methods.

My research is motivated by urbanization trends. We are currently experiencing the largest wave of urbanization in human history, primarily concentrated in resource-poor cities in developing countries. The United Nations estimates that over one billion people already live in informal settlements, or “slums” — over 100 million in India alone — and work in the informal economy in precarious positions disconnected from government safety nets. Women are disproportionately employed in informal work, experience more severe poverty, and are less likely to hold secure property rights, yet we know even less about their experiences of and political responses to urban informality. I am interested in how poverty and informality (living and working in spaces unprotected by government regulations) shape both policy needs and political behavior for these urban citizens.

I am committed to conducting research that can be used to inform policy. Prior to beginning my Ph.D., I worked for two years in Bihar, India with IDinsight, a nonprofit that conducts development research for policymakers. In addition to consulting to practitioners in India, I have also provided research support to practitioners in Mexico, Jamaica, Mozambique, Kenya, and Zambia. Please contact me if you are interested in partnering!