My research focuses on "church asylum" (Kirchenasyl) for rejected asylum-seekers in Germany with specific attention to questions of sovereignty, religious difference, secularism, kinship and citizenship. I am interested in how Christian sanctuary, which offers a form of shelter from the state, becomes a mechanism through which rejected asylum-seekers gain legibility as subjects worthy of legal recognition and political belonging.

Before coming to Stanford, I received my B.A. in Politics from Willamette University in 2015, and my M.T.S. in Philosophy of Religion from Harvard Divinity School in 2019. Between my undergraduate and master’s degrees, I also worked at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit as a Consultant in Cairo, Egypt as well as at the American University in Cairo as a Researcher.