Welcome!

I am a third-year Ph.D. student in Political Science and a predoctoral fellow at the Violence, Conflict, and Security Lab at the University of Florida. I also hold an M.A. in International Affairs from the Missouri State University and a B.A. in International Studies from the American University of Iraq, Sulimania.  

I study comparative politics and international security with substantive research interests in political violence, civil wars, ethnic, communal, identity, and self-determination conflicts, with an empirical focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Methodologically, I employ both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

My dissertation examines the determinants of subnational variation in communal violence. Specifically, I ask why communal violence emerges and escalates in some localities—but not in others—within divided societies.