I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University and a Dissertation Fellow at Northwestern's Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. I study the intersections of nationalism, religion, and self-determination in international politics, with a particular focus on histories and theories of the nation-state. My work has appeared in Global Studies Quarterly. 

My dissertation, "International Relations and the Jewish Question: Reconsidering Self-Determination," spotlights Jewish political movements that imagined self-determination outside of the nation-state system and considers their implications for debates about territory, sovereignty, and world order. I also have ongoing projects on the global governance of antisemitism and on the relationship between sovereignty and international law in the occupied West Bank. 

Previously, I was based in Jerusalem/Al-Quds as a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow. My research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation as well as Northwestern's Graduate School, Crown Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, and Weinberg College Center for International and Area Studies. At Northwestern, I'm also affiliated with the Global Religion and Politics Research Group and the Jewish Studies Graduate Student Cluster. I received a Master's in Jewish Studies from Oxford in 2018 and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Vassar College in 2017.

You can contact me at emmadavis2025@u.northwestern.edu