I am an associate professor in comparative politics at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI). In 2020 I was awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to implement the project “States, Nationalism, and the Relationship Between Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision” (ETHNICGOODS). The project brings a historical perspective to bear on the connections between nation-state formation, ethnic diversity, and development. Modern states invariably grapple with delineating national belonging and managing ethnic distinctions. ETHNICGOODS charts different historical trajectories of nation-building and state capacity formation, and discerns their distinct identitary and developmental implications.

During the 2015/2016 academic year I was a Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University. I also spent shorter research stays at and the Institute for Latin American Studies at Free University Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP) in Lima, and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Buenos Aires.

My research focuses on states and state formation, nationalism, ethnic politics, and development. I have been awarded the Editorial Best Paper Award by Comparative Political Studies (CPS) and the Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award by Brown University. I have also obtained various competitive research grants, including from the European Research Council (ERC), European Commission, Erasmus+ Framework, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO).

My work has appeared across different disciplines and research fields, including leading university presses (e.g., Oxford University Press), political science journals (e.g., Comparative Political Studies), sociology journals (e.g., American Journal of Sociology, Theory and Society), development journals (e.g., Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Development Studies), nationalism/ethnicity journals (e.g., Nations and Nationalism, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Nationalities Papers), and area studies journals (e.g., Latin American Research Review, Journal of Latin American Studies). I have also edited three peer-reviewed special issues.
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I studied sociology and cultural studies at Humboldt University Berlin and hold a PhD in sociology from Brown University.