Academic work

I have extensive teaching experience across diverse settings, including serving as a Graduate Student Instructor for Introduction to Sociology at UC Berkeley, where I guided undergraduate students through foundational concepts in sociology. My teaching background also includes unique experiences beyond academia, such as working as a yoga instructor for female FARC political prisoners in Colombia, where I facilitated sessions focused on mindfulness and physical well-being as part of a broader reintegration process. Additionally, in my role as a consultant, I lead specialized workshops for both governmental and non-governmental audiences, drawing on my expertise in gender and development to design sessions that enhance understanding and application of gender-sensitive approaches in policy and practice.

My PhD dissertation examined a particular form of “partial” agency: women’s strategic use of intimacy in war and conflict. Intimacy is typically associated with loving consent, and far less often with strategy or manipulation to achieve particular outcomes. By theorizing strategic intimacy as a gendered practice, my dissertation shed light on how patriarchal gender regimes shaped which behaviors were viable and for whom in conflict scenarios. In the absence of the Colombian state or local (and legal) protection forces, I found that women civilians strategically developed relationships with armed actors to achieve both personal and community-level objectives. I argued that they did so using a series of tactics involving “frontstage performances” (Goffman 1956) of emotions and physicality, and showed how these influenced armed actor governance patterns. My in-depth interviews give rare insights into women’s strategic experiences of intimacy during war and conflict by revealing how they “bargain with patriarchy” (Kandiyoti 1988) to achieve specific outcomes.