Thanks for visiting my website. I am a PhD Researcher in political science at the European University Institute in Florence. This year I also spent the spring semester as a visiting graduate student at UC Berkeley.
My work focuses on how imperialism continues to shape contemporary politics. This includes experimental analysis of the politics of collective memory and defensiveness, as well as the use of causal inference techniques to study long-run legacies of empire on identity and political attitudes, particularly in Britain. My other research interests include democratisation, political inequality, and the politics of class and redistribution.
I will submit my PhD thesis “Essays on Imperial Legacies in British Politics” in 2023. Drafts of my latest working papers are available below:
“Blood Runs Thicker than Water: Ancestral Ties to Slavery and Ingroup Defensiveness”
This survey experiment focuses on how individuals react to information about ancestral involvement in the slave trade, demonstrating how the invocation of familial identity when engaging with ‘uncomfortable’ histories can help to reduce backlash and inter-group prejudice.
“We Could Have Been Worse: Competitive Innocence and Defensive Memory Among Perpetrator Groups”
In this survey experiment I test the implications of rhetorical appeals to ‘worse’ cases used by members of perpetrator groups to legitimise their group’s history. I find that such defensive strategies not only enable participants to avoid confronting ‘uncomfortable’ histories, but actively increase prejudice towards victimised outgroups.
I also have a wide range of teaching experience, most recently as Postgraduate Teaching Assistant for the course “Globalisation and Populism” at University College London.
Aside from my academic work, I recently published an essay on irony and defensiveness, available here.