Welcome! My name is Rana (pronounced renə, like Renaissance). I am an assistant professor of political science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Niehaus Center at Princeton University. I received my Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University.

I study comparative and international politics, with a focus on conflict processes including civil action (or wartime activism), displacement, and humanitarian response. I’m also interested in qualitative and multi-method research. My geographic focus is the Middle East, especially Syria. My book Civilizing Contention explains the relationship between international aid and nonviolent action among civilians and refugees during the Syrian war. It employs data from field-based immersion and interviews, as well as original social media data, and is forthcoming from Cornell University Press.

I earned an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in political science from American University. I have lived as far afield as Syria and Singapore, but a piece of my heart is always in Ohio—where I grew up and conducted the research for my first book. As Ohio Goes: Life in the Post-Recession Nation received a national Independent Publishers Book Award in Current Events in 2017.