Current PostDocs

My research examines the conditions that incentivize political incumbents to tackle corruption and create specialized anticorruption institutions. I also work on data visualization and web-based knowledge mobilization projects such as the European Court of Human Rights Database (ECHRdb), which aim to disseminate scientific socio-legal findings within and beyond the academic community. I will be joining the department of political science at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) as an assistant professor in June of 2022.

While at McGill, I am completing a book project on Michel Foucault and the political theory of asceticism. Generally, I study asceticism as understood in its etymological sense as practices of self-transformation and self-maximization, or 'training.' I seek to restore the political valences of this concept now considered exclusively of religious or ethical significance. Drawing on political and social theorists such as Sloterdijk, Weil, Foucault, Gandhi, and Weber, I trace various historical deployments of 'training' within diverse political strategies, from ancient Athenian elite rhetorical training to the neoliberal lifestyle industry, and show how training programs have been used both to reinforce and to resist political hierarchies. This research represents a first attempt to assess the political ramifications of a ubiquitous, deceptively simple, and surprisingly powerful idea: human beings become what they are through the repetition of a vast array of practices, often without being aware of it. Who is being trained, by whom, towards what ends, and with what effects? Are we aware of how our way of life is being shaped and of the daily practices that we undergo? Are these practices conducive or anathema to a flourishing life? To a meaningful democratic citizenship? Is it acceptable that some people are forced to train badly, or not permitted to train well, while others are free to train as they wish? At stake in this project is the suggestion that there are real stakes in coming to exert rational, democratic control over what I call "the means of training," that is, over all of those forces that make us what we are as political and ethical beings.

My research examines the impact of the high degree of party-system polarization that is observed in many contemporary democracies on citizens’ support for democracy and for two key democratic principles: free and fair elections, and the rule of law. Methodologically, my research includes the development of harmonized data on democratic support measures and of party policy positions in countries not included in extant data sources. Furthermore, my research includes the realization of survey experiments in countries with various levels of democratic support.

My research aims to center the “We”-perspective in political philosophy, examining how “We”-groups, as opposed to “I”-individuals, impair or facilitate peace, justice, democracy, and moral progress. For my Banting postdoctoral project at McGill, I focus specifically on two particular We-groups, i.e., “We”-the-people and “We”-the-partisans, who raise pressing challenges to liberal democracy. I examine how norms of We-reasoning (e.g., loyalty, solidarity, trust) account for their problematic tendencies. This new analytic framework, I believe, opens up new ways to address populism and tribalism that are "We"-sensitive. I will be joining the Department of Philosophy at the University of Calgary as an Assistant Professor in July 2022.

At McGill I am working on a book project on political manipulation, especially with respect to voting and representation.