Rafi is currently a postdoc at the School of Public Affairs at American University and will join the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the summer of 2025. He received his B.A. from Kabul University in 2016, and his MPP (2020) and Ph.D. in Public Policy from Oregon State University in 2024. Rafi’s primary research interests lie in development economics and the economics of conflict and fragility. Specifically, he studies the short- and long-term effects of violent conflict, shocks, and public policies on human capital and development outcomes in the developing world, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.