My research focuses on urban politics and development in the Global South (primarily India). The United Nations estimates that over one billion people already live in urban “slums” globally — neighborhoods that lack adequate infrastructure and secure property rights, and this number is expected to double in the next few decades. 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.

My research primarily focuses on 1.) deploying innovative methods to locate, classify, and study slums and informality and 2.) explaining how slum residents mobilize politically to negotiate with the state to mitigate vulnerabilities associated with informality. I am also very interested in how women and men experience and respond to urban poverty and informality differently and I am currently working on 3.) a series of papers on how gender and informality intersect to produce disparate political behavior for men and women.

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, Mozambique, and Zambia. Please contact me if you are interested in partnering!