I am interested in the sources of authoritarian resilience and patterns of political representation in an age when democratic institutions are under threat.  In addition to my published work, I am  working on the following research projects:

Digital Authoritarianism

• Digital Campaign and democracy. I am developing a typology to study the regulatory approaches of AI and social media use during elections, and their effects on electoral integrity. I have worked with Tony Porter on several projects to investigate digital space and democracy, including a pre-ISA workshop held at McMaster University, 26 Mar 2019 and two research articles on the digital backlash on democracy and the transnational effects of “fake news” and fact-checking organizations.

Ethnic Quotas and Political Representation

• Quotas and Representation. This is a multi-year SSHRC funded project to study how ethnic quotas, reserved seats, and other mechanisms guarantee the political representation of ethnic minorities and their substantive effects. This project aims to understand how ethnic quota systems relate to meaningful inclusion, modes of political representation, patterns of electoral competition, and chains of political responsiveness and accountability.
• Substantive Representation of Elected Ethnic Minority and Women MPs. I am interested to develop new ways to study the substantive representation of elected ethnic minority and female leaders. I am exploring new ways to better assess to what extent the elected leaders are representatives of their constituents.