He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work focuses on theories of globalization and development, social movements, nationalism, and questions of race and migration, with a specialization in contemporary Middle East and North Africa. His most current work looks at the political and economic development models deployed in Iraq during the U.S. occupation, and the effort to gain consent for these models from Iraqi civil society. He is also working on a separate project that looks at Iraqi exiles living in the U.S. and asks how memories of trauma and exile shape political subjectivity.