She is the Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2008 and her advisors included Robert Bates, Stephen Walt, and Michael Ignatieff, to whom she served as a teaching assistant for four years.
[1][4] Her research has focused on the political economy of conflict and development in the Muslim world as well as using data science and social science methods to address systemic racism in housing, healthcare, policing, and social media.
[5] Her 2012 book "Alliance Formation in Civil Wars," uses realist insights in international relations theory and argues that alliance formation are not inherently based on ethnic or religious lines, but reflect balance of power considerations.
[6] She was named director of MIT's Sociotechnical Systems Research Center in 2020, focusing on the study of high-impact, complex societal challenges around the world.