Biographical Sketch
I am a Stipendiary Lecturer in Politics at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. I also teach as an Associate Lecturer in Comparative Politics for Oxford Brookes University. I have taught classes in Latin American politics, comparative politics, analysis of democratic institutions and introductory quantitative methods.
My main research interests are comparative politics, the politics of social mobilisation, state repression in new democracies and politics in Latin America, with a particular focus on Brazil, where I spent three months undertaking field research in the spring of 2010.
My DPhil thesis entitled: 'Protest and Repression in democratic systems: A comparative analysis with a focus on Brazil' focuses on identifying the factors, which may explain why some democratic governments are more likely to respond to political protest with repression than others. The thesis employs a variety of methodologies, including a cross-national statistical analysis, a cross-state statistical analysis using data from the sub-national units in Brazil and an in-depth comparative case study that focuses on government repression of the 'Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra', Movement of Landless Workers (MST) in Brazil in the two states of Pará and São Paulo.