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I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard University and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Williams College for 2023-2024. I study the interplay between political parties and the state. When do governments invest in building impartial and effective state institutions? How does the extraction of state resources and rents by politicians affect party building and political development? Why might the interaction between parties and the state shape regime type and determine regime stability? I employ a diverse range of methods to study these questions, from digitizing archival publications and web scraping government records for statistical analysis to interviews and participant observation. My work primarily draws on insights from the politics of South Asia and the Middle East.

I have previously served as an AmeriCorps VISTA and National member at the Youth Policy Institute in Los Angeles.