Photo credit: Harini Kumar
I am an Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). From 2021 - 2023, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, where I specialized in methodology and comparative politics.
My research develops statistical methods for causal inference, which I apply primarily to studies of racial and ethnic politics. The methods I develop are founded in design-based causal inference, a tradition that regards randomized experiments as a methodological ideal and infers causality from observational studies by designing them to approximate this ideal. In my research, however, I often go beyond this framework by integrating it with Bayesian methodology. This integration facilitates (1) intuitive probabilistic statements about causal effects and (2) the use of modern, flexible methods without sacrificing the interpretability of underlying causal assumptions.
I am also an instructor for the Causal Inference course at the ICPSR summer program and I have taught a course on African politics at the City College of New York (CCNY). Before starting my Ph.D., I received an M.A. from the University of Chicago, a B.A. from DePauw University, and lived for two years in Uganda, where I served as a research assistant at Makerere University. I currently live in the Bronx, but was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.