I am a PhD candidate in the Government Department at Cornell University and a Nonresident WSD-Handa Fellow at the Pacific Forum. I was previously a Guggenheim predoctoral fellow at the National Air and Space Museum and a visiting researcher at Peking University’s School of International Studies.
My research focuses on international security and Chinese foreign policy, examining the motives behind China’s pursuit of space capabilities. My dissertation provides a theoretical explanation for how and when prestige concerns drive foreign policy by looking at the domestic politics of Chinese space policy. It draws upon fieldwork conducted in China and Washington D.C. from 2018-2019. My dissertation utilizes interviews, Chinese language sources, and survey experiments.
My research has been supported by the Marion and Frank Long Fellowship from the Reppy Institute, the Houston I. Flournoy Graduate Fellowship, and the East Asia Program at Cornell University. Some of my commentary and policy writing has been published by the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, World Politics Review, the Diplomat, and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.
Previously, I worked at the National Bureau of Asian Research, and was a David L. Boren National Security Fellow in Beijing, China. I have an MA from the American University School of International Service and a BA from the University of Virginia.