About Me

My research centers marginalized social groups in studies of contentious politics, predominately conflict. I have a particular interest in the politics of gender and sexuality. I am currently a Departmental Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, in association with St Hilda’s College. Previously, I was a Part-Time (Assistant) Professor in Qualitative Methods and Max Weber Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (EUI). I earned my DPhil from the Refugee Studies Centre in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford.

In my current monograph project, I investigate the dynamics of selective violence against LGTBIQ+ people during the Colombian internal armed conflict and relate these dynamics to broader patterns of social transformation during war. Through this research, I consider the roles of marginality, cruelty, and brutality in social control strategies during war. In this monograph, I develop a particular focus on brutality during war as a mechanism for social transformation. This work has been awarded the Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize for the best doctoral thesis in International Studies of the British International Studies Association, the Elizabeth Wiskemann Prize for best dissertation on (in)equality & social justice of the Political Studies Association, and an honorable mention for the Kenneth Sherrill Best Dissertation Award of the Sexuality and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. I am currently planning my second research project which will analyze dynamics of ‘social cleansing’ or violence against social difference conducted during the civil war in Colombia as well as the military dictatorship in Argentina.

In addition to my work on political violence, I have a secondary research interest in LGBTIQ+ displacement from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. I am writing a co-authored manuscript with Rebecca Buxton, entitled A Queer Theory of Refuge, under contract with the University of California Press; selected pieces from this book have been published in the American Political Science Review and Migration Studies. I also have an edited volume with Jamie Hagen and Andrew Delatolla, entitled Queer Conflict Research, with Bristol University Press, and two special issues on ‘Queer Peacebuilding’ for the Revista de Estudios Sociales and ‘LGBTIQ+ Persons in Situations of Displacement’ in the Journal of Refugee Studies. I have also worked on a SSHRC-funded project on the lives of LGBTIQ+ Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and Brazil at the ‘collaborator’ level— and continue this research independently in Colombia today. Further, with a range of exciting collaborators, I am beginning to research at the nexus of art, war, and contentious politics in Colombia.

The hope of my research is to contribute to both academic and policy debates relating to queer and trans experiences of conflict and displacement. Outside of academia, I have worked on human rights, humanitarian, and security topics for a range of institutions, including the United Nations’ Executive Office of the Secretary-General as well as human rights organizations in Washington DC and Buenos Aires. I have written for the Guardian, the Washington Post, Slate, the New Humanitarian, Oxford Review of Books, the Conversation, and Newsweek & the Daily Beast’s Women in the World Foundation. I have contributed to pieces published in the New York Times, El País, the Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald, and Foreign Policy, among others. I am fluent in Spanish and proficient in Italian and French. Since 2023, I have been involved with the Missing Peace Initiative on Preventing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence of the United States Institute of Peace

I encourage prospective PhD students to be in touch with any questions about doctoral study.