Research
Book
(2021). Precolonial Legacies in Postcolonial Politics: Representation and Redistribution in Decentralized West Africa. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
Allan Sharlin Memorial Book Award, Social Science History Association, 2022
QMMR Sartori Best Book Award, Honorable Mention, 2022
Long-Listed for the Luebbert Best Book Award, 2022
Reviewed in African Studies Review, Governance, The Journal of Development Studies, Perspectives on Politics, Publius: The Journal of Federalism
Journal Articles
(2023). Judge, Landlord, Broker, Watchman: Assessing Variation in Chiefly Duties in the Ghana-Togo Borderlands (with Natalie Letsa) Journal of Modern African Studies, 61(3), pp. 439-62.
(2023). Enumerator Experiences in Survey Data Collection in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Justine Davis) Comparative Political Studies 57(4), pp. 675-709.
Winner of the African Politics Conference Group Best Paper Award 2024
(2023). Demanding Recognition: Citizen Perspectives on Clientelism in Africa (with Kathleen Klaus & Jeffrey Paller) African Affairs 122(487), pp. 185-203.
(2022). Citizen response to local service provision: Emerging democratic accountability in decentralized West Africa? Electoral Studies 79.
(2022). Improving Open-Source Information on African Politics (with Kristin Michelitch). PS: Politics and Society 55(2), pp. 450-455.
(2020). The Mechanisms of Direct and Indirect Rule: Colonialism and Economic Development in Africa (with Natalie Letsa). Quarterly Journal of Political Science 15(4), pp. 539-577.
(2018). Precolonial Legacies and Institutional Congruence in Public Goods Delivery: Evidence from Decentralized West Africa. World Politics 70(2), pp. 239-274.
Coding of Senegal’s Precolonial Kingdoms
(2018). The Politics of Local Government Performance: Elite Cohesion and Cross-Village Constraints in Decentralized Senegal. World Development, 103, pp. 149-61.
(2018). Popular Support for Democracy in Autocratic Regimes: A Micro-Level Analysis of Preferences (with Natalie Letsa). Comparative Politics, 50(2), pp. 231-73.
Working Papers
A Precolonial Paradox: Rethinking Political Centralization and Its Legacies (revise & resubmit)
Understanding the Sensitivity of Party Identification Questions in Polarized African Contexts (with Justine Davis) (revise & resubmit)
Colonial Legacies, Collective Efficacy, and Rural Development: Evidence from the Togo-Ghana Border (with Natalie Letsa) (under review)
Unspoken Hierarchies: The Enduring Effects of Caste Discrimination in Africa (with Leonardo Arriola and Dominika Koter) (under review)
The Political Effects of Caste in Senegal (with Leonardo Arriola and Dominika Koter)
Guns, Garrisons, and Growth: Revisiting State Formation in Africa (with Leonardo Arriola, Igor Kolesnikov & Yosef Tadesse)
In Progress
The Origins of Opposition Strongholds (with Natalie Letsa)
Indigenous Slavery and Long-Run Inequality in Africa
Endogenous Decentralization? The Politics of Subnational Boundary Creation
Book Project: Tropical Subjects: Ethnographies of Experimentation