Research Interests

My research agenda focuses on crime and political violence in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, Central America, and Mexico. I am also interested in historical legacies of violence and how they affect contemporary outcomes. To study these and other topics I use a combination of primarily experimental and quasi-experimental methods. While I wrote my dissertation on Colombia, and live in Bogotá, I also study Mexico and the three countries in the so-called "Northern Triangle" of Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Prior to graduate school, I worked for three years on human rights and development, primarily in East and Southern Africa.