Reader in Comparative Politics

BA, Cum Laude, Political Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham (1996)
MA, Political Science, Louisiana State University (1998)
PhD, Political Science, Arizona State University (2003)

I work in the areas of comparative and international politics with a primary interest in the political economy of development. Recently this research focuses primarily on energy and natural resources, including how international oil and gas companies have shaped twentieth-century international relations and how today they are engaging with climate governance and shaping energy transitions. Geographically my research has mainly been focussed on sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular Southern Africa, and the post-colonial world more generally.

Having also taught an introductory course on American Politics for nearly 20 years, I am progressively integrating my interests in American politics into my wider research agenda by approaching the US case from a comparative perspective and in the wider context of American Political Development. Specific interests include the politics of transitions (e.g., the American Revolution and Reconstruction), postcolonial and race relations (e.g., comparative studies of Jim Crow and settler minority rule in Southern Africa) and US energy politics with a focus on the history of "Big Oil". 

My research at Queen's has been funded by the ESRC World Economy and Finance Research Programme, the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation and the DfE Global Challenges Research Fund. Publications indicative of my key research interests have appeared in journals such as Political Studies, Political Geography, Business & Society, Third World Quarterly, Democratization, The Extractive Industries and Society, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Journal of Contemporary African Studies and Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. I am also the author of Africa’s Development Impasse: Rethinking the Political Economy of Transformation (Zed Books).

At the undergraduate level I convene and teach American Politics and a final-year module entitled Global Political Economy of Energy. At MA level I have contributed primarily to International Political Economy.