Biography

I have been a Post-doctoral Researcher in the European Politics research group at the ETH Zurich since September 2011, and joined the Max Weber programme in September 2012.
My current research considers decision-making processes and negotiator agency in legislative negotiations in the EU. It examines member state interactions within the Council of Ministers during the legislative process, and examines how the Council interacts with other legislative bodies over the course of negotiations to reach decisions at the EU level. The research seeks to account for the influence that the institutional environment has on the decision-making process, by detailing how negotiators respond to different institutional contexts in which legislation is discussed.
As a Ph.D. candidate at Trinity College Dublin, under the supervision of Dr. Robert Thomson, I completed a research thesis titled Decision Making in the Council of Ministers of the European Union. That project examines the legislative decision-making process at the Coreper and Working Group levels of negotiation within the Council of Ministers. In particular, I focused on the manner in which Member States exert their influence over the legislative process, through interventions made over the course of negotiations, and explored competing explanations of Member State behaviour and the legislative process derived from formal theories of decision making.
I have taught courses in research design, international relations, and European politics.