Biography

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. My dissertation and book project examine the impact of foreign sponsorship on the durability of authoritarian client regimes. In particular, I focus on the divergent effects of foreign support on client coup prevention strategies and military loyalty. In addition to data collection on foreign support for autocratic regimes for my book project, I have been involved in several major collaborative data collection projects and have begun the early stages of a new collaborative project on the origins of military organizations in authoritarian regimes. I completed my B.A. at the University of Minnesota in Political Science with a minor in Russian, where I graduated summa cum laude in 2014.

Research Interests 

• The politics of authoritarian rule
• Civil-military relations
• Comparative democratization
• Soviet and Russian foreign policy
• The international politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency
• Post-communist politics

Education

Ph.D. Candidate, ABD (Ph.D. expected May 2020)

Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
Comparative Politics (major), International Relations
Dissertation: “The Durability of Client Regimes: Foreign Sponsorship and Autocracies, 1945-2010”
Committee: Lucan Ahmad Way (supervisor), Seva Gunitsky, Joseph Wright (Penn State)

B.A. University of Minnesota (2014)
Political Science
Minor: Russian
Summa cum laude (highest honors)

Publications

• (2019) “How Can We Know if Russia is a Threat to Western Democracy? Understanding the Impact of Russia’s Second Wave of Election Interference.” Memo for Global Populisms and Their Diffusion. Stanford, CA: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University (with Lucan Ahmad Way).
• (2018) “The Structural Sources of Postcommunist Regime Trajectories.” Post-Soviet Affairs 34, no. 5: 317-32 (with Lucan Ahmad Way).
• (2018) “Russia has been meddling in foreign elections for decades. Has it made a difference?” Washington Post (Monkey Cage), January 8 (with Lucan Ahmad Way).
• (2018) “Russian Foreign Election Interventions Since 1991.” PONARS Policy Memo No. 520. Washington, D.C.: PONARS: New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (with Lucan Ahmad Way).
• (2017) “Is Russia a Threat to Western Democracy? Russian Intervention in Foreign Elections, 1991-2017.” Memo for Global Populisms as a Threat to Democracy. Stanford, CA: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University (with Lucan Ahmad Way).

Courses

• (2019-20) Teaching Assistant, Introduction to International Relations (POL208), University of Toronto, St. George.
• (2018) Teaching Assistant, Democracy in Theory and Practice (POL112), University of Toronto, Mississauga
• (2016-17) Teaching Assistant, Introduction to International Relations (POL208), University of Toronto, St. George
• (2016) Teaching Assistant, Democracy in Theory and Practice (POL112), University of Toronto, Mississauga