My research and teaching interests broadly focus on the cultural connections that structure political change in global systems and states. In particular, my book manuscript examines how national coherence structures secessionist outcomes and civil war following state collapse. This work has been supported by several sources, including Fulbright, IREX, FLAS, the American Councils of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Science Foundation (CIVIC).
I also apply my work on cultural connections and identity to examine teaching and learning in 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.