Center for the Study of Global Change

About

My research agenda centers on understanding strategic dynamics in regions of limited state presence. For many groups, the relevant institution is not the government, but a firm, a charity or a rebel group. The interaction among this third actor, the population, and the government yields puzzling outcomes, ranging from legitimate authority of non-state actors, to tacit agreements between supposed enemies, such as local governments and rebel groups. To what extent do these political actors rely on other, non-state actors to perform the functions that sustain legitimacy?

These questions have led me to study regions of natural resource extraction, conflict, and aid provision. In my earlier work, I focused on forested regions, investigating timber firm behavior in the Republic of Congo through the development and analysis of a GIS dataset of forest concessions to understand variation in local investment by firms. I'm particularly interested in when states willingly concede sovereignty. In my dissertation, I answered this question by examining the strategic interactions between a government, firm and local population in regions of natural resource extraction, where we would most expect states to maximize their presence. I use mixed methods, including game theory, comparative case study, and analysis of a GIS dataset to answer these questions. I have conducted field work in Congo-Brazzaville, DRC, Zambia, and Mozambique. I am also interested in how we construct narratives of contested regions. As a result, I am evaluating the role of reporting bias in a geo-spatial dataset of the Naxalite conflict in India to understand the nature and extent of reporting bias by government and rebel forces.