I joined the SDSU Political Science department in 2008, after earning a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2007 and a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University in 1998.  My work has examined the politics of human rights intervention—broadly conceived to include relief aid, peacebuilding, international law enforcement, and military intervention—into episodes of political violence, with a regional focus on Africa, specifically Uganda.  This research culminated in my book, Displacing Human Rights: War and Intervention in Northern Uganda (Oxford University Press, 2011).

I am also a Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, in Kampala, Uganda, where I will be working during Spring 2012.

My research continues to concern questions of political violence and intervention in Africa, with a focus on the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine and on the International Criminal Court. I am also interested in the repercussions of the U.S. "War on Terror" in East Africa and the expansion of AFRICOM. In addition to my academic work, I have worked extensively with Human Rights Focus, a grassroots human rights organization based in Gulu, northern Uganda.