My research uses an interdisciplinary approach to local issues that have global implications; it is achieved through international collaborations; and it has policy impact. Before becoming an academic, I worked in international development practice in several west African countries, helping design programs to foster social inclusion through localized social change, for example, promoting micro-health insurance, adult literacy, and rights for women and girls. These experiences continue to shape my approach to academic research and ground my commitment to achieving real-world policy impact. My current academic career focuses on understanding how authoritarian power is produced and contested in everyday life, and how to study these questions ethically.

Since my research is largely problem-driven, I adopt diverse methods tailored to answer the questions t hand. My research streams have required notably different methodological approaches. My work on authoritarianism relies mainly on long-term and in-depth field research, interviews, and comparative case studies to develop a rich understanding of the operations of authoritarian power in everyday life. In contrast, to develop an understanding of the transnational politics of research ethics and its regulation, I have used wide-ranging methods that allow me to describe and explain the complex and fragmented system of ethics regulation, for which there was little pre-existing data. To do so, I built datasets on which I conducted bibliometric, statistical, and textual analysis. I have used these methods to situate interviews and case studies in a broader global picture.