About Me

I’m a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. Before joining Harvard, I taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Political Science at Brown University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown and my M.A. in Regional Studies–East Asia from Harvard.

My research lies at the intersection of state–society relations, the political economy of development, and the evolution of subnational institutions. While my regional focus is China, my broader interests extend to these issues across the Global South. In particular, I examine how patterns of state–society relations shape a society’s capacity for collective action in areas such as market development, state building, and welfare provision. Methodologically, my work draws on large-scale, micro-level original data—especially grassroots archival materials—to illuminate the microfoundations of macro-level social and economic outcomes.