I am an Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where I have taught since 2012. I am also a Research Associate of the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Kennedy School (2016-17) and a Research Fellow at its International Security Program and MEI (2015-2017). 

My research agenda, on the conduct of civil wars, includes an empirical focus on the Middle East, but addresses questions about civil wars as a general matter, and draws on comparisons across diverse countries. My core research projects study the interaction between civil war belligerents at three levels of analysis: duration and termination as macro-level results of the interaction between the warring parties; warfighting choices, focusing on alliance behavior and the operational goals of fighting, both meso-level behaviors; and, at the micro-level, the behavioral determinants of individual actions in situations of group conflict.