I research and teach on the politics of security, with a particular focus on borders, migration and West Africa. This site is a hub for information on my research, teaching, and more. You can also find contact information here.
I am an Associate Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and an editor at Security Dialogue. My research interests are in borders and migration, critical security studies, and African politics. I also write on surveillance and privacy for diverse audiences.
My current research is on the transnational governance of security, with a focus on the technologies and policies of border control and migration management. I am principal investigator of Securing the Border with Data: Canada’s expanding digital frontier, an SSHRC-funded project with Benjamin Muller and Can Mutlu. It examines how electronic travel authorizations, digital identity schemes, airport kiosks and border apps automate border security in Canada. This work has appeared in Big Data & Society (“The appification of borders,” 2025) and Geopolitics (on the IOM and the datafication of borders, 2024). A second strand concerns security intervention and cooperation in the Sahel, notably the G5 Sahel and its place in West Africa’s evolving security architecture, most recently in European Journal of International Security (2025, with Adam Sandor and Jana Hönke).
Much of my work has focused on security dynamics in West Africa, especially the Sahel. I have written on migrant smuggling and international interventions against it in Niger, and on vigilantism and local militias in Burkina Faso. Earlier, I studied border policing in Senegal and Mauritania, including police cooperation, border infrastructure and digital identification technologies, which is the subject of my book Security at the Borders (Cambridge University Press, 2018). I also co-edited the second edition of Research Methods in Critical Security Studies (Routledge, 2023).
