She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research centers on the crimes of international concern (genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes) and the movements and institutions that address these crimes. She has conducted research on truth commissions and international tribunals in order to investigate how certain acts of violence are deemed criminal, while other acts of violence are celebrated as heroic. Her current book project, The Impunity Machine: Genocide and Justice in Guatemala (with Elizabeth Oglesby) is forthcoming in the Antipode Book Series.