Hello! I am a Preceptor at the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University.

I am interested in how states shape beliefs about national identity. My book manuscript examines how Soviet cultural institutions helped to build national groups that were imagined not only to be strong or weak, but also loyal or hostile to the multi-national communist project. I focus on the role of campaigns to “liquidate illiteracy” amongst the adult Soviet population in the 1920s, and on the emergence of national cultural intelligentsias - writers, artists, scholars, and other creative professionals - in the 1980s. My work relies on quantitative data collected from Soviet archives as well as qualitative primary sources and original interviews..

My other projects examine elite politics in personalist authoritarian regimes, the formation of authoritarian organs for administrating cultural life, the dynamics of mass purges and forced resettlement, and the effectiveness of new strategies for teaching social science writing.

I also work on social determinants of health using large-scale randomized control trials. My work with partners in public health and family medicine focuses on preconception health, health education, and diabetes management amongst minority groups here in the United States.

I am enthusiastic about teaching, and developed and taught original courses and workshops on research design, introductory comparative politics, health politics, the practice and profession of science across different disciplines, national identity, the fundamentals of running a clinical trial, the arts and culture in authoritarian settings, and social science writing.

In my spare time, I build furniture and other fine woodworking projects.

You can learn more about my research and teaching, and find my CV and contact information, in the other sections of this site.