I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and the Aung San Suu Kyi Endowed Chair in Asian Democracy at the University of Louisville’s department of political science and the Center for Asian Democracy. 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. During Fall 2025, I will be on leave as a Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London.

My research examines political parties and democracy, with particular attention to the causes and consequences of majoritarian and nationalist movements. I focus on how these movements expand beyond their core base to incorporate marginalized groups, and how this shapes intergroup relations, civic participation, and democratization at large. Complementary agendas focus on ideology dissemination and identity formation, and subnational authoritarianism within democratic regimes.

My research has been published in Science Advances, and by Cambridge University Press. I am currently working on a book project on how religiously conservative parties mobilize women. This research has received several accolades, including best dissertation and paper awards from the American Political Science Association in Comparative Politics; Political Economy; Religion and Politics; Political Communication; and Women, Gender, and Politics Research. 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.

Prior to this, 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, where I was a Research Associate at the Center for the Politics of Development.

My research has been generously supported by the APSA-NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the APSA Centennial Center’s Women and Politics Fund, the Weiss Family Fund, the J-PAL Governance Initiative, the Global Religion Research Initiative, the Governance and Local Development Program, and UC Berkeley’s Graduate Division, Insitute of South Asia Studies, Center for Contemporary India, and Center for Right-Wing Studies.