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About Me

 I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRE) at University College Dublin, where I hold an Ad Astra Fellowship in Environmental Politics. Previously, I held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of St Andrews, School of International Relations, where I worked with the PeaceRep Mediation Event and Negotiators Database (MEND) on a grant project of which I am still a part today. Before that, I was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for European Global Studies, Universität Basel, focusing on "Natural Resources as Objects of Conflict." I hold Ph.D. in Political Science, with a specialization in International Relations, where my dissertation, "The Climate-Conflict Nexus: Urban Migration and Data Innovations," passed with distinction. My research interests broadly encompass climate change, conflict, peace, migration, political economy, computational social science methods, and policy.

My research has been supported by several prestigious grants and awards. I am a recipient of the Ad Astra Fellow Research Award (€25,000) and the Ad Astra Fully Funded PhD Studentship (€88,000) from University College Dublin. I also served as a Data Manager on the £19 million PeaceRep Grant Project funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, United Kingdom. Further funding has come from the Political Economy of Climate and Environment (C$400), the Institute for European Global Studies at the University in Basel (₣11,985), and the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Denver for research on fishery, conflict, and climatological data ($20,000). I have also received awards from the International Studies Association ($3,000), the Box-Steffensmeier Scholarship which fully funded ICPSR methods courses, the Rule of Law Institute ($3,500), and the Institute of Turkish Studies ($3,000). Other significant honors include receiving an Honorable Mention for the APSA Best Dissertation Prize and being a Round 2 candidate for the Oxford University Press Early Career Researcher First Book Prize (still under review). I was also recognized with the APSA First-generation Scholar Award. I have also served as an Equity in Quantitative Research Fellow at the Institute for Racial Justice (IRJ) and a Gannon Leadership Fellow.
 

My work has appeared in journals such as the Review of International Political Economy, the Journal of Peace Research, Environmental Policy and Governance, and Civil Wars. My book, Turbulent Tides: Climate, Migration, Conflict, & the Quest for Economic Stability, is currently in the second round for the 'Early Career Researcher First Book Prize' with Oxford University Press. I also write for policy audiences, with contributions appearing in the Peace Analytics Series by PeaceRep, Climate & Natural Resources by PeaceRep, CARMA Internet and Big Data in Economics and Social Sciences, the IOM UN Migration Blog Series, and the Earth Refuge Legal Database. 

Furthermore, I am trained in several languages including Arabic, Turkish, and Spanish. My volunteer work with RefugeeOne and Project Elea have allowed me to tutor refugees of a variety of ages and countries of origin. In my freetime, I enjoy meditation, yoga, reading, playing video games, and playing with data!