Her research focuses on civil wars, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, and African politics, and her findings have appeared in numerous scholarly and policy journals. Her most recent research project culminated in a book entitled The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding, which won the Chadwick Alger Prize, awarded by the International Studies Association to the best book on international organizations published in 2010. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in the eastern Congo since 2001, and was based there during the 2010–2011 academic year.