My current research explores the sociology of legitimacy across political scales in contemporary non-democratic settings. Previous fieldwork in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Mexico directly informs this line of inquiry. My earlier research investigates aid effectiveness in the context of local, national and global development policies and programs. It explores why certain development policies and programs emerge, why they are implemented in certain ways and not others, and how the measurement of their effectiveness is operationalized and leveraged politically. It focuses on three interrelated fields: (1) local―in particular urban―governance amid armed conflict, (2) global health agenda-setting and resource allocation, and (3) discourses as frames for global development policies. An overview of my publications and their citations can be found on Google Scholar.