Renard Sexton is a political scientist who studies social conflict, insurgency and development using quantitative methods and field work. He joined the faculty of Emory University in 2019. His research focuses on South/Southeast Asia and Latin America, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Philippines, Peru and Colombia. He is a former postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and former Economics of Conflict fellow with ESOC and the International Crisis Group.  Before completing his PhD in Politics at New York University, he worked at the UN and for NGOs in Ecuador and Afghanistan, and wrote for journalistic outlets such as FiveThirtyEight, the Guardian, and the New York Times.