My research interests include the causes and consequences of programmatic social policies and how they effect marginalized citizens engagement with the state in settings with weak democratic institutions, uneven state capacity and high levels of patronage.
My book project examines the political origins and consequences of social policy expansion in new democracies in the Global South, by studying the impacts of one of the largest cash transfer programs targeted exclusively at low-income women: The Benazir Income Support Programme in Pakistan.
A related strand of my research examines the politics effects of programmatic social policies in the Global South in comparative perspective. My review article on the politics of social policy expansion in Latin America's new democracies has been published in Comparative Politics.
I have a Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown University and Masters degree from Columbia University. Prior to starting my Ph.D. I worked at the World Bank’s Social Protection and Labour Practice.