I am Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

My research examines the fluctuating relationships between social identity, ideology, and interpersonal, socio-political action in contexts marked by war and violence. More simply, I study how people classify themselves and others, how these classification practices matter and change in times of war, and how they shape individuals’ behaviors and decision-making about violence. In using qualitative, historical, and experimental methods to craft falsifiable theories about violence, my research spans culture, politics, morality, identities, and conflict.

My book, Sacred Betrayal: How the French Catholic Church Broke Its Pledge to Protect Jews during the Holocaust, is forthcoming with Harvard University Press. Another book, the second Handbook of The Sociology of Morality, co-authored with Shai Dromi and Steve Hitlin, was recently published by Springer. My research has appeared in American Sociological Review; Political Power & Social Theory; Qualitative Sociology; Sociological Theory; European Journal of Sociology, and several other journals and edited volumes. I have also published numerous op-Eds and interviews in The Washington Post; New Yorker; LA Times; NY Times, and elsewhere. I currently serve on the Steering Committee of the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and, prior to my time at UCLA, I worked in various capacities for USAID, United Nations CTED, Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies, and Facing History & Ourselves.