Dissertation Research:
"The Strategic Logic of Political Kidnapping"
​Committee: Michael Barnett (chair), Alex Downes, Evgeny Finkel

My dissertation examines the hostage-taking strategies of violent, political organizations as they perpetrate extractive and non-extractive kidnappings around the world. To examine when and why armed groups choose this particular tactic, I leverage qualitative evidence from interviews with ex-combatants from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Italian Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army; secondary source examination of Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and the Islamic State; as well as quantitative analysis of an original, global dataset of VPOs. Through individual case studies and competing risks duration models that estimate the timing and likelihood of kidnapping outcomes, my dissertation provides a novel explanation for a persistent and perplexing type of violence against civilians worldwide. 

Publications:
"Terrorism by  Any Other Name," Terrorism and Political Violence, forthcoming (2018). 
"Organized Violence Between War and Peace," Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2017): 377-383. Online here. 

Policy Writing:
"How a Decade of the iPhone Changed Global Kidnapping," War on the Rocks, January 4, 2018. Online here.

Working Papers:
"The Oxygen of Publicity: Variation in U.S. Media Coverage of International Kidnapping"
"We Don't Negotiate with Terrorists: Variation in National Hostage Policy"
"A House Divided: Marriage, Citizenship, and Nationalism in the Split Village of Barta'a"
"Eulogizing National Violence, Affirming Divine Right, or Glorifying Liberal Values? Explaining Variation in National Anthem Types" (co-authored with Professor Harris Mylonas of George Washington University)

Datasets:
Kidnapping by Violent Political Organizations, 1970-2015 (in progress)
U.S. Media Coverage of International Kidnappings, 2001-2015 (in progress)

Fieldwork:
Colombia (2017, 2018)
Israel and the West Bank (2006)