Office hours:

For Emory students interested in a one-on-one meeting to discuss research or courses, please click here to reserve a slot. I have the following guidelines:

  • I try to hold office hours weekly, as available. Please sign up in advance (the system automatically closes slot availability two hours before).

  • Ahead of our meeting, please write down some bullet points for our agenda and mention those at the start.

  • Unless agreed to ahead of time, I will typically not be able to read any memos, papers, etc. in advance of the meeting.

Courses

(1) POLS 381:  Conflict in Asia

Course Description:

This course examines the logic and exercise of violence in contemporary Asia, including insurgency, terrorism, foreign occupation, political violence during decolonization, showdowns between regional powers, and social mobilization. We will start by asking “why do we see violence?” using game theory and historical cases. The course will then dive into present day cases such as Afghanistan, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, North Korea and the South China Sea. Cross-cutting topics will include international drug smuggling, terrorist networks, separatist insurgencies and foreign intervention.  

Fall 2021: Syllabus

Past: Fall 2019, Fall 2020

(2) POLS 585: Political Economy of Development (PhD Seminar)

Course Description:

This PhD-level seminar provides an introduction to current research on political and economic development. We will start by reviewing advances in empirical methods and theoretical approaches, before diving into questions of political institutions, emergence of the state, democratization, historical legacies, political violence, efforts to reform and foreign intervention. The readings will include ‘classic’ texts as well as contemporary ‘cutting edge’ work in political science and economics.

Fall 2023 Syllabus

Past: Fall 2019, Fall 2021

(3) POLS 494: Political Economy of Development (Senior Seminar)

Fall 2020 Syllabus

Course Description:

What is political economy? ‘Political economy’ as used here functions in a few ways: (1) intersection of political science and economics disciplinary approaches, (2) generally ‘positivist’ approach that seeks to generate testable hypotheses (3) often, but not always, trying to carefully tease out cause and effect (as opposed to descriptive or predictive work).

What is development? Development is in some respects a grab bag of topics related to political change over time, economic growth, state formation, conflict, etc. There is a range of theoretical streams of work that we’ll examine, and much of it boils down to ‘political structures matter a lot for social and economic outcomes.’ These institutions are both driven and moderated by contextual factors, making for complex research.

(4) POLS 321: Comparative Political Economy

Fall 2023 Syllabus

Conferences

In Fall 2021, we will be hosting the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG) at Emory political science. Details will be posted on the SEAREG website as they are made official.

I’m a founder and co-sponsor of the Southern Workshop in Empirical Political Science (SoWEPS). We are hosting our inaugural meeting at Emory in October 2019. Check out the conference website here: https://www.soweps.org/soweps-1-details

While at NYU I was a co-founder (with Saad Gulzar and Cyrus Samii) of NEWEPS (Northeastern Workshop in Empirical Political Science, see http://www.neweps.org which was the first what has become a national network of ‘WEPS’ meetings.

Methods