I am a historian of 20th century global decolonization, with broad interests in the international history of South Asia, Southern Africa, military intervention, and insurgent resistance. I teach history at The Ohio State University where I am Assistant Professor and Seth Andre Myers Chair in Global Military History.

 

My scholarship focuses on post-1945 political transformation, institutions of international order, the role of insurgent movements in international relations, as well as definitions of sovereignty.  I received a B.A. from Columbia University's School of General Studies and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University.  Before joining the Ohio State faculty, I held research positions at Dartmouth College (US), the Institute of Historical Research (UK), The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (India) and the Institute for History at Leiden University (The Netherlands). 

My work analyzes the intersection of nationalist insurgency and its transnational advocacy in the emergence of postcolonial nation-states during twentieth century global decolonization.  States-in-Waiting, my forthcoming book, shows how nationalisms that did not achieve statehood during decolonization's moment of seeming political possibility sought out informal sources of international recognition.  My articles include "Decolonization in the 1960s," (Past & Present, 2019) and "Indian and American Cold War Civil Society for Tibet," (The American Historical Review, 2022) I have also written on the Second World War's Battle of Kohima for The Washington Post.