​ABOUT

I am an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam where I am a member of the research group Political Economy and Transnational Governance. I am interested in threats to democracy emerging from hostile rhetoric,  political violence, and organized crime. My work aims to understand the processes contributing to the persistence of violence in spite of progress towards democracy and order.  From 2020-2025, I am principal investigator of the project Elections, Violence, and Parties funded by the European Research Council. My research has previously been funded by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO), the European Commission's Marie Curie Actions, and the U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative. I am affiliated with the Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies. From 2018-2020, I was an associate editor for European Journal of International Relations. I am guest editor (with Kristine Höglund and Sarah Birch) of the 2020 Special Issue "Electoral Violence" in Journal of Peace Research.

​Please find my full CV here.