I study how language produces and legitimizes power in the public sphere. My work examines how discourse produces the meanings that give ideologies their shape and force. This includes tracing the discursive processes that make particular power relations appear natural and credible. To address these questions, I integrate social, cognitive, and quantitative methods.

My current projects examine how contemporary state and diplomatic rhetoric constructs ideological alignment and legitimizes particular visions of social and political order. This work extends arguments in my book Discourses of Ideology and Identity: Social Media and the Iranian Election Protests (Routledge, 2015), in which I examine discursive positioning by state actors and global activists in old and new media during a global social movement.