My research agenda revolves around two central questions: Why do postcolonial states remain in dependent relations, even as they have made great strides in inclusion in global governance and IOs? Furthermore, what opportunities exist for postcolonial states to contest these dependent relations?

To explain the persistence of dependent relations, my research first shows that even when postcolonial states participate in the international system, economic and racial structures limit change to reforms that largely maintain the status quo. As a result, much of my research agenda explores what states and their populations do to change the status quo.

My approach moves beyond the elite or international level to integrate the everyday political experiences of those who constitute and materialize the state and, thus, the international system. Through original qualitative data collection and fieldwork, I show how domestic populations engage in worldmaking outside traditional governance networks. I suggest they do so both by imagining alternatives and by enacting change, such as through regional collectives or protest against IO policies. My dissertation demonstrates that inclusion and reform foreclose radical change and result in the continuation of inequitable practices. However, imagining new worlds and enacting resistance – especially from the bottom-up – shows how postcolonial states and their populations contest these relations.