Graduate Program

I am a 4th year graduate student, with interests in African politics, political economy, institutions and institutional change, land politics, state building, and processes of liberalization (political and economic).

My dissertation research focuses on the political economy of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, with emphasis on the ways in which poverty influences voting behavior, campaign finance, and electoral mobilization. I am conducting fieldwork for this project in Benin. Data collection should be complete by the end of next summer (2014).

I received a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007.  Shortly afterwards, I joined the Peace Corps; I worked in the Small Enterprise Program in Togo.  I have since made several trips back to West Africa (mainly Benin) to conduct field research.