I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at Harvard University. My research interests lie in state capacity, development, bureaucratic reform, and historical political economy.
My research examines how fiscal institutions and historical legacies shape governance and development. My current projects study administrative reform in China, the long-term effects of colonial and pre-colonial education in Manchuria, agricultural aid in sub-Saharan Africa, and infrastructure expansion and land dispossession in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Before Harvard, I received a B.S. in Political Science with a minor in Statistics from the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude in December 2025. My undergraduate thesis, “Bureaucratic Interests: Does Fiscal Decentralization Impede Efficient Governance?”, received the Marshall Sahlins Award for the best thesis in the social sciences and the Frank Grace Award for the best thesis in political science. The paper was published in Politics & Policy in 2026.
My work combines historical and archival research, causal inference, geographic analysis, and field research. I have presented my research at the APSA, IPSA, MPSA, and WPSA annual meetings.