Welcome! I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the University of Kent’s School of Politics and International Relations. My research interests lie in China’s foreign relations, great power politics, and nationalism. 

I am currently Principal Investigator on a project on Resistance to Great Powers in the Global South, funded by a Economic and Social Research Council New Investigators’ Grant. The project examines political and social resistance to the presence and influence of China and the United States across the Global South, and what this means for democracy, development, and the future of international order.

My other work explores how international efforts to change a regime's behaviour influence domestic politics and public opinion, and the causes and consequences of rises in authoritarian and nationalist sentiment. My recent book examines how the Chinese Communist Party strategically manages and resists foreign pressure. My work is also published in the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Democratization, and Security Studies. 

I am open to supervising PhD students in areas related to China’s international relations and politics, authoritarianism, the politics of human rights, and nationalism.

I received a PhD in Security Studies from Princeton (2017), MSc in African Studies from Oxford (2008) and BA in Psychology with Philosophy from Oxford (2006).