I’m a child of the (post)colony—both my parents were born as French colonial subjects. I’m an immigrant, hailing from Fouta Tooro, the rural areas that straddle northern Senegal and southern Mauritania. I’m a first generation college student. These experiences continue to shape why and how I study, teach, and write about International Relations.

I’m currently the Hardis Family Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of Government at Cornell University. I have previously taught at Morehouse College for four years (2017-2021) and earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Florida.

I’m a former Chair of the Theory Section of the International Studies Association (ISA) and member of the ISA Executive Committee (2023-24).

I received the ISA’s A. Leroy Bennet Award twice (in 2020 and 2025) and was the co-winner of the 2021 Prize for the Best Article published in the African Studies Review. I serve on the editorial boards of International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, PS: Political Science & Politics, and African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review.

My primary areas of research focus on international law, historical and critical IR, violence, race, humanity, and world order(s). I’m the author of States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court (Cambridge, 2020). My second book project, currently at an advanced stage, is titled Against Humanity: Race, Empire, and the Liberal International Order. My peer-reviewed articles have been published in International Studies Review, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Human Rights Quarterly, the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, the Oxford Encyclopedia of International Studies, International Politics Reviews, African Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Narrative Politics, Africa Today, and the African Journal of International Criminal Justice. I have also written for, have been interviewed by, and/or my research featured in, a number of media outlets across television, radio, and print. These outlets include the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor, BBC, Deutsche Welle, RFI, Quartz Africa, African Arguments, and World Politics Review.