I am a professorial lecturer in the School of International Service at American University, Washington D.C., where I teach courses in comparative politics and research methods. My research interests include social movements, democratization, politics and gender in Central Eastern Europe, public policy & administration, political economy, feminist theory, and gender-based research methods. I am also an affiliated faculty member in the Transatlantic Policy Center at AU.
I earned my Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida (2021) with graduate certificates in European studies and gender studies. I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses in comparative politics, public policy, and gender studies at the University of Florida, Eastern Illinois University, and American University. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw, Poland funded by a research grant from the Kosciuszko Foundation. From 2018-2019 I was a Fulbright researcher at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia.
My research examines the politics of gender in Central Eastern Europe. Specifically, I examine how gender equality activists frame gender-based violence to educate the public, support policy reforms, and provide services to those who experience gender-based violence amid a conservative movement opposed to feminist activism in the region. I have conducted extensive field research in Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia, funded by a Fulbright Research Grant, Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics, and a Rothman Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities from UF's Center for the Public Sphere.