I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Studies at Swarthmore College. My research lies at the intersection of comparative political behavior and political economy, with a regional focus on South Asia and a substantive focus on migration, identity politics, and governance.

My dissertation examines how access to private coping mechanisms, such as temporary migration, shapes citizen-state relations and political accountability in origin communities. I also investigate how local elected officials respond to large-scale migration, and the consequences this has for governance and development in left-behind regions.

In addition to developing a book project based on my dissertation, I am working on two collaborative projects that (i) explore how exposure to slow-onset disasters shape citizen-state relations in weak institutional settings, and (ii) evaluate the impact of electoral gender quotas on the provision of public services. All of my projects are based in India and employ a range of methodological approaches, including panel and longitudinal designs, household surveys, survey experiments, and immersive ethnographic fieldwork. My research has been supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), the American Political Science Association (APSA), the University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI), and the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science.
 
I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University. Before graduate school, I worked at a survey research organization in New Delhi, where I supervised public opinion surveys across more than ten Indian states. I also hold an M.A. in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a B.A. (Hons.) in Political Science from Hindu College, University of Delhi.