I am an Associate Professor of Politics & Global Studies at the University of Virginia, where I teach classes on global development, citizen-state relations, local politics, and field methods. Prior to joining UVA, I was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College. I received a Ph.D. in Political Science and Masters in International Development Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology from Swarthmore College. 

My research examines local citizenship practice and local governance, the politics of accountability, and welfare provision, with a regional focus on India. My first book, Claiming the State: Active Citizenship & Social Welfare in India (Cambridge University Press, 2018), was awarded the 2018 Joseph W. Elder Prize for best first book in the Indian Social Sciences by the American Institute for Indian Studies. My work appears or is forthcoming in the journals Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Perspectives on Politics, Science, World Development, and World Politics, as well as in a range of media outlets, and has been supported by the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the World Bank Sexual Violence Research Initiative, the MIT GOV/LAB, the American Institute for Indian Studies, the National Science Foundation, the Boren Fellowship, and the Fulbright Program. I'm currently engaged in projects on the comparative politics of claim-making in the global south; on information provision, civic technology, and social accountability; on gender, policing, and bureaucratic reform; and on local responses to Covid-19 in India.