I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at UCLA. In 2008, I was a Fulbright Scholar in Malawi conducting dissertation research on the political economy of HIV/AIDS interventions. I study a variety of topics including African politics, HIV/AIDS, and research methods. In particular, I have been intrigued with the importance of village headmen in rural Africa. Methodologically, I am interested in the systematic analysis of qualitative data, field experiments, social network analysis, and anything that can be learned from longitudinal household-level data.
The Political Economy of HIV/AIDS Intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa
Prospectus Abstract: This dissertation will analyze the political economy of the provision of HIV/AIDS programs in sub-Saharan Africa with special attention to the experience of Malawi. The outcome of interest is the provision of programs and services to reduce HIV transmission and to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS. Though interesting as an exercise in policy evaluation, an investigation of HIV policy implementation in Africa is not the primary focus of my research. Rather, I bring attention to the incentives and motivations of actors across levels of governance, considering both political and administrative actors; I argue the motivations of different actors and the nature of interaction between these actors are major influences on the provision of HIV intervention. My contribution is to discuss the incentive compatibility of actors in a hierarchical system tasked with the delivery of healthcare services. In a nascent field mostly concerned with national level policymaking, my research expands earlier scholars' attempts at understanding policy intervention by also exploring the importance of local elites in the provision of HIV/AIDS programs.
The Role of Executive Time Horizons in State Response to AIDS in Africa, Forthcoming in Comparative Political Studies
In this paper I argue that politicians' time horizons affect the differing levels of state intervention against AIDS. Using data measuring government spending, AIDS policy, and political constraints, I test the presumption that the leader of a country can determine a country's level of AIDS intervention. I look at countries in east and southern Africa to explore the relationship between political institutions that constrain an executive's time horizon (i.e. competitive elections) and the level of the state's efforts in the fight against AIDS. My primary hypothesis is that an executive with a shorter time horizon is less likely to create policy or devote resources to intervene against AIDS. I find that lengthening an executive's time horizon increases the level of government spending on health, but that executives with shorter time horizons tended to have more comprehensive AIDS policy than their counterparts with longer time horizons.
To uphold CPS copyright, I cannot yet post a copy to this page. However, if you would like the most current version, please email me and I would be happy to share it with you.
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AIDS Exceptionalism: The View From Below (with Patrick Gerland and Susan Watkins), PDF
We begin with a brief background to AIDS exceptionalism, featuring the supply of aid for AIDS, followed by the outlines of the current critiques of AIDS exceptionalism. We then turn to evidence of the demand for aid for AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. We use two main sources of data: 1) the multi-country Afrobarometer surveys, which asked respondents whether their government should devote more resources to AIDS or focus on other problems; 2) survey, qualitative and biomarker data collected by a longitudinal research project in rural Malawi, a country that, like many other countries in the region, has a high prevalence of HIV and great poverty. The multiple data sources permit us to conclude with confidence that rural Malawians, like the critics of AIDS exceptionalism, would prefer fewer resources be allocated to AIDS and more to other critical day-to-problems, amongst which the provision of clean water ranks very high. Although the global supply of AIDS services, and particularly access to antiretroviral treatment, is being scaled up across sub-Saharan Africa, we expect that the additional supply will continue to surpass local demand.
An Offer You Can't Refuse? Provider-Initiated HIV Testing in Antenatal Clinics in Rural Malawi (with Nicole Angotti and Lauren Gaydosh), CCPR Working Paper #033-08
Provider-initiated, 'routine' HIV testing of pregnant women seeking antenatal care--wherein women are tested unless they explicitly refuse--is promoted by international organizations as an effort to curb mother-to-child transmission. Utilizing qualitative data from Malawi, we offer an account of the perceptions that surround--and surely impact--a pregnant woman's decision to take an HIV test. We argue that idealized social relations, characterized by equality, rationality, and non-coercion between clients and providers, are presumed to be disseminated with routine testing programs. We find, however, that these stylized relations do not fit neatly in Malawi, and consequently, may lead to paradoxical outcomes for public health. We show that rural Malawians do not perceive HIV testing as a choice, but rather as compulsory and the only way by which to receive antenatal care. This study illustrates considerable dissonance between global expectations and local realities of the delivery of routine testing programs.
The Different Movers in a Social Movement: Survey data from the May 1 immigration rallies in Los Angeles (with Michael Suk-Young Chwe, Darin DeWitt, and Michael Stone)
This paper studies participation in social movements using original survey data collected during the May 1 immigration reform rallies in Los Angeles, California in 2006. More than 500,000 people participated in the May 1 rallies in Los Angeles as part of a nationwide movement supporting immigration reform following the passage of HR 4437 in the United States House of Representatives. Our paper describes the population that participated in this recent social movement. Using the survey responses of 876 demonstration participants at three different demonstration locations, we predict first-time protest participation, demonstrating the characteristic differences between first-time and repeat protesters. The data reveal a few substantial findings. First, we find that even when there is substantial pre-protest debate on future outcomes dependent on the type of demonstration, events organized by different groups with different motivations can have participants that are quite similar to each other; in parallel to this finding, even events organized by the same group with the same motivation can have participants that are quite different from each other. Second, first-time protesters were more likely to respond to the survey in Spanish than repeat protesters. Finally, affinity with the protest message was the strongest predictor of participation in the May 1 marches, stronger than even costs of participating in a protest. Our findings point to a new mobilization of Spanish-speakers in the debate over immigration policy.
Updated: February 2009