He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Washington, Seattle in 2012, and subsequently was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin. From 2013 to 2015 he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, and from 2015 to 2017 an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. His research has appeared in journals including the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Governance, Policy Studies Journal, and World Development.