About

I’m a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science and the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. My research interests include international trade, emerging technology, and democratic backsliding, with a general focus on the political economy of globalization.

My dissertation examines the domestic politics of export controls. While controls justified by national security have grown exponentially over the past decade, they track the threats meant to justify them surprisingly poorly. I argue that export controls require two conditions: a national-interest story in which denying the good would degrade an adversary’s capabilities, and excludability, so that denial blocks the capability rather than diverting the sale elsewhere. Unlike trade protection, the politics of export controls have no domestic constituency demanding them: their security benefits diffuse across the nation, while their costs concentrate on particular export-oriented firms and congressional districts.

I received my B.A. in Political Science / International Relations from UC San Diego, graduating magna cum laude and with High Honors, and I received my M.A. in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown University, where I graduated with High Honors.

You can download my CV here.