Welcome
I am a Senior Lecturer in International Relations the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow; Founder of the Ethics Governance Network; and a member of the UK Young Academy. From 2024-25, I was a Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of York. My research studies how authoritarian states project power, with particular interest in political violence and gender. I also study the politics of research ethics and its regulation, focusing on the social sciences.
Ethics Governance Network
In 2023, I founded the Ethics Governance Network (EGN), a platform that facilitates exchange among scholars concerned with the regulation of research ethics in the social sciences.
The EGN connects diverse disciplinary and methodological views, fostering discussion about topics such as why and how regulatory practices, institutions, and norms emerge and diffuse; how they are implemented; and their practical implications – from whether and how they may foster more ethical research, to their potentially unanticipated effects.
Latest Book
Arbitrary States: Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda, Oxford University Press, 2021
Arbitrary States a study of Uganda’s state from below, focusing on local violent actors and their relationship to state authorities to explain how the state projects its authority into everyday life. It draws on extensive fieldwork conducted in Uganda, and interviews with vigilantes, community policing outfits, local authorities, and police.
The book was a finalist for the African Studies Association’s Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize. It has been reviewed in eight journals across politics, African studies, conflict studies, and development studies. You can read reviews in African Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, Civil Wars, Journal of Development Studies, and Foreign Affairs, and listen to discussions about it on Democracy in Africa and The World Peace Foundation Podcast, as well as a reflection on methods and ethics with Anastasia Shesterinina.
The book is available for free download here.
News and Updates
- September 2025: Hosted workshop at Glasgow on "Research Ethics and Its Regulation in the Social Sciences: Charting an Agenda for Change"
- March 2024: Appointed new member of UK Young Academy
- May 2024: Presented at the University of Washington’s Global Perspectives Spring Lecture Series on global trends in regulating research ethics
