Academic Profile

Research Interests: Comparative Judicial Politics, International Law, Latin American Politics, Qualitative Methods

I am the Associate Professor in the Qualitative Study of Comparative Political Institutions in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College. In 2018 I received the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Politics and International Relations. I currently serve as Director of Research Training (Politics).

My primary research agenda is in the field of comparative judicial politics, with a regional focus on Latin America. I've wirtten about judicial behaviour and strategic litigation in human rights cases, transnational judicial dialogue in the Inter-American Human Rights System, and the relationship between courts and public opinion. I am the author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America  (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which won the Herman Pritchett Best Book Award from APSA's Law and Courts Section; the best book award from ISA's Human Rights Section; and the Donna Lee Van Cott Best Book Award from LASA's Political Institutions Section. I am currently finishing a book on transitional justice for Cambridge University Press, and starting to work on a new project that examines the causes and consequences of anti-corruption judicial crusades in Latin America. In addition to this work on courts, I've written chapters and articles on the political economy of vote buying and electoral intimidation, and also on qualitative methods. My articles have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Law & Society Review, and Sociological Methods & Research, among others.

I recieved my Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 2012. My thesis won APSA's 2013 Edward S. Corwin Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of Public Law.