My research and teaching interests broadly focus on the cultural and identity foundations of political change at both the global systems and state level. In particular, my book manuscript examines how national identity shapes both non-violent and violent politics following state collapse. This work has been supported by several sources, including the FulbrightProgram, IREX, FLAS, and the American Councils of Learned Societies and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
My work also applies a cultural and identity perspective of politics within Political Science and STEM higher education. This work has been generously funded by NSF (SBE; EEC).
The nature of my work takes me to numerous places, including extensive time conducting research in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. I have also taken short-term courses at the University of California – Berkeley and Lomonosov Moscow State University. Prior to coming to Iowa State I was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Conflict Resolution Institute at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.