Currently Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) of Gender and Politics in Politics and International Relations at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh , my research focuses on the cross-national comparison of gender and politics, specifically the ways contexts shape the gender gap in political attitudes and activities. Utilizing multilevel modeling approaches, my work examines the influence of women political leaders on women’s political participation. I also evaluate how social movements affect adolescents’ attitudes toward gender roles and influence their propensity to protest. Another area of my research examines the ways in which the media frame and gender their framings of immigration and how such framings affect citizens’ attitudes towards immigrants. Since the world has been confronted with the pandemic, my latest research also examines the gendered and raced impact of COVID-19. Lately, I have begun to realize that it is my moral responsibility to always challenge the neoliberalized higher education sector; thus, much of my recent research centers on my critiques of the academia.
Currently I sit on the editorial board of Political Behavior and the Journal of Taiwan Studies. I have also previously served as an Associate Editor of Representation: Journal of Representative Democracy and Coordinating Editor of Politics, Groups, and Identities. In the past, I sat on the American Political Science Association’s Women and Politics executive council and co-chaired the Women and Politics section program for the 2023 annual conference. I have been a member on the executive board of Gender Politics and Policy section of the International Political Science Association since 2022.
Apolitical Foundation has recognize me as one of the 50 influential scholars and the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity has also recognized me as one of the emerging diversity scholars. My works have been published in major political science and gender studies journals and featured in The ConversationUK and The Washington Post Monkey Cage, among other platforms. I have appeared on BBC World and France 24 and am also a somewhat regular guest on BBC Radio Scotland.
I translate my research into course materials that engage students’ interests in exploring critical questions about gender in political institutions and social structures. I have had the pleasure to design and teach multiple courses, such as Gender and Politics, Comparative Politics of Immigration, Chinese Politics, East Asian Politics Seminar, Government and Politics in East Asia, Global Feminisms, Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, Politics of Immigration, and Research Methods in Politics. The Political Studies Association awarded me the Sir Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching in 2021.
In addition to serving as the Chair of Womxn of Color Collective at the University of Edinburgh, I have also co-founded and chaired the Staff BAME Network, which won the CAHSS Community Engagement and Impact award under my leadership. I was also the runner up for the CAHSS Advancing Inclusion award in 2023.
Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, I taught at Newcastle University, Smith College, and the Pennsylvania University. I hold a dual Ph.D. in Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the Pennsylvania State University. I obtained an M.A. in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management at the World Learning SIT Graduate Institute in 2010 after receiving a B.A. in American Studies and Studio Art with a minor in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2006.
I am at my happiest (but also the most miserable) when I run. When I am not at school, I paint and draw. I also enjoy reading fiction, going to gigs, and traveling, especially backpacking. Traveling has propelled my interest in gender and politics in a transnational, comparative context and inspired my constant questioning of the existing structures and institutions. As I continue to be amazed by the beauty in the world, it is my dream to backpack (and stay at hostels) around the world one day.
