I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
My research focuses on human rights and state repression. I am particularly interested in why countries cooperate in transnational repression, measuring human rights using machine learning and text analysis, and examining public opinion and human rights. Additionally, I work on the Sub-national Analysis of Repression Project (SNARP). My research is published in International Interactions, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Human Rights, and Journal of Peace Research. In 2024, I was awarded the International Studies Association (ISA) Human Rights Section's Best Paper Award for my paper Transnational Repression: International Cooperation in Silencing Dissent. In 2018, I received the ISA Human Rights Section's Steven C. Poe Best Graduate Student Paper Award for my paper Security-Civil Liberties Trade-offs: International Cooperation in Extraordinary Rendition. Previously, I was an Assistant Professor of political science in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. Additionally, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. I received my Ph.D in Political Science from the Department of Government at the University of Essex in 2017. |
Spatial Distribution of Social Unrest and Epidemics in Africa and Latin America, 1990–2017: Blue points represent the location of a social unrest event using SCAD. Darker-shaded first-order administrative units indicate a greater number of epidemic outbreaks using EM-DAT. Source: Cordell, Wood and Wright (2023).
Central Rendition Transit Corridor Control Variable: The red line represents the shortest flight path from Washington D.C., U.S. to Kabul, Afghanistan. The blue points indicate the airport within each country closest to the central rendition transit corridor. Source: Cordell (2019).
Intensity of Physical Integrity Rights Violations in Nigeria in 1999 (left) and 2005 (right): Darker-shaded first-order administrative units indicate greater intensity of physical integrity rights violations, based on information coded from the U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Source: Sub-national Analysis of Repression Project.