Her research cuts across Organizational, Political, Cultural, and Economic Sociology. Her work focuses on the reciprocal relationship between culture and social organization, from consumer groups to state administrative capacity. Her award-winning work has been published in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, and Comparative Political Studies. Her book project Patchwork Leviathan analyzes the emergence and functioning of niches of organizational excellence within otherwise-weak state administrations, combining qualitative research on four niches within the contemporary Ghanaian state with comparative historical analyses of state organizations in China, Brazil, Kenya, and Nigeria.