I'm a policy researcher who has written extensively on the politics of immigration and security, and now works to help public servants connect, learn and address the major issues facing governments.
I am currently Government Insights Lead for Apolitical, a tech company working to improve government and policy. I come from a professional background in politics and academia. I was previously associate professor of international politics at the University of Lincoln, UK. I have writen a (award-winning) book on immigration politics in the U.S. border state of Arizona: Securing Borders, Securing Power (2022, Columbia University Press). From 2024-2026, I led an international, interdisciplinary research project funded by the British Academy: “Colonialism and Migration in Global Perspective.” I was also been involved in the project Seeing “Illegal” Immigrants: State Monitoring and Political Rationality, based at the University of Edinburgh.
I am fundamentally interested in why and how policymakers approach complex issues in ways that make sense to them, generating transnational governance trends. My work has focused on immigration: why security treatments of it predominate, and how migration governance worldwide is shaped by colonialism and empire. My research has appeared in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Journal of Global Security Studies. I have extensive university teaching and supervision experience in politics and international relations.
Before academia, I was a speechwriter for the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and the Governor of Arizona.