Research Interests
Critical carceral studies, law and society, African politics, feminist and postcolonial studies
Current and Upcoming Work
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
“‘Police fire on rioters’: everyday counterinsurgency in a colonial capital.” Small Wars & Insurgencies 33(4-5): 633-53. 2022.
“Women’s Rights and Critical Junctures in Constitutional Reform in Africa (1951-2019),” with Aili Mari Tripp. African Affairs 120(480): 365-89. 2021.
“Replication Data for: Women’s Rights and Critical Junctures in Constitutional Reform in Africa (1951-2019),” with Aili Mari Tripp. Harvard Dataverse, V1.
Short Publications and Essays:
“Criminal Justice Reform?” Live-Blogging the State of the Union, CAHSS and Effect, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, March 2022.
“Political Violence Targeting LGBT+ Communities in Africa.” The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) with Timothy Lay, December 2021.
“Degrowth: Less Resource Use for More Wellbeing and Resilience.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs with Susan Paulson, May 2021.
“How to Count What Counts: TIS the Season for Syllabi Metrics?” International Studies Quarterly with Michael Tierney, March 2016.
“How Does Aid Impact Democratic Change in Africa?” AidData Blog: The First Tranche, August 2014.
In Progress:
“Colonial Crime Statistics and the Carceral State”
“The Colonial Legacy of Policing as State-Building”
“The Politics of Words: A Survey Experiment on ‘Defund the Police'”
Book Project
Creating and Contesting Empire: The Colonial Legacy of Policing in Tanzania
Creating and Contesting Empire reframes contemporary policing in Tanzania as a colonial legacy. It examines the colonial roots and postcolonial persistence of policing to offer a new explanation of the relationship between the police, state, and society. This book explores how the creation and contestation of the colonial police shaped the modern capitalist state under the British Empire with a focus on the former Tanganyika Territory. Understanding the police as a colonial legacy is fundamental to understanding the contemporary politics of policing. From the beginning, the colonial police played a central role in asserting imperial rule, establishing hierarchical order, and extracting labor and resources. But just as the police played a central repressive role, they were also an entry-point for societies to resist colonization, leading to an interconnected dynamic between resistance to policing and resistance to colonialism. Colonial policing still impacts the present, despite and because of this resistance. Lineages of resistance to state violence might suggest new ways forward for the remaining work of decolonization and abolition today.
Select Awards and Honors
Research Booster Award, Creating and Contesting Empire: The Colonial Legacy of Policing in Tanzania, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2021-2023
Mellon Wisconsin Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Summer 2021
Institute for Legal Studies Law and Society Graduate Fellowship, Law School, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2020-2021
Summer Initiative Funding Award, Political Science Department, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Summer 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Student Research Conference Travel Grant, Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Funding in the Graduate School, University of Wisconsin–Madison, April 2019 and August 2019
Scott Kloeck-Jenson International Internship Fellowship, Institute for Regional and International Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Summer 2019
Hyde Dissertation Research Award, Center for Research on Gender and Women, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Summer 2019
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, Summer 2018
Jordan Prize for year’s best graduate paper on Africa, African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2017-2018
African Studies Summer Fieldwork Award, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Summer 2017
Elections Research Center Fellowship, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2016-2017
Kaden Paulson-Smith 