Background

I am a PhD candidate in International Studies and Comparative Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Prior to my doctoral journey, I completed an M.A. in International Studies in Gender and Conflict at the Josef Korbel School where I was awarded the Sie Fellowship and full-tuition scholarship through the Sie-Cheou Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy which is awarded to outstanding master’s degree-seeking students from the U.S. and abroad. My M.A. capstone project focused on the dualities of people’s resistance and compliance in state-making in Indian-occupied Kashmir. I also completed an integrated M.A. in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India where my M.A. thesis focused on the grey ares between legality and illegality of the Indian Peacekeeping Force deployed in the Sri Lankan Civil War. I have experience conducting semi-structured interviews, oral narrative interviews, administering survey research, and coordinating focus groups.

For the past four years, I have been the Project Manager of the Women’s Rights After War project which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and United Kingdom’s Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant. The project is a multi-method study that considers the substantive impact of post-war women’s rights reforms in six conflict-affected countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Iraq, Nepal, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. Having been a part of the project since its inception, I am trained in planning and conducting multi-method qualitative research, analysis, and data management across different geographical contexts. I also have experience in overseeing research processes, coordinating with researchers in different contexts, and building partnerships across research sites through this experience.

I have published articles in Global Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Genocide Research, and the International Feminist Journal of Politics. Additionally, I have been invited to deliver talks and presentations at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Gender, Justice, and Security Hub at the London School of Economics. Furthermore, I’ve had the opportunity to present my research at the International Studies Association’s and American Political Science Association’s Annual Meetings.

As a visiting scholar at the Gender, Justice, and Security Hub at the London School of Economics, I explored the discursive potential of women’s rights reforms and how they can perpetuate harm, employing discourse analysis. My experience also extends to policy-oriented research and advocacy on gender justice and gender-based violence, gained through my work with Oxfam America. In this role, I researched, drafted policy reports, congressional briefings, and produced external communications on progressive gender policies.