Her research focuses on authoritarian and hybrid regimes, the state, land and violence, and ethnic politics with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Her current book project explores how authoritarian leaders vary management of the state sub-nationally to best meet electoral challenges to their rule after the introduction of multi-party elections. It does this through an in-depth look at Kenya's democratization process since the beginning of multi-party elections in 1992. The manuscript shows how international pressure to reform state institutions (often times through calls to decentralize power and engage in public sector reform) can actually hamper democratization.