Students
Training graduate students in political science research is the most important and, frankly, most rewarding part of my responsibilities as a university professor. Here, I present brief bios on my past and present students.
If you are considering UCSD for graduate study, I encourage you to look at the range of topics these students have selected for their dissertations, their placements, and their publications. Although I have not cleared this invitation with them, I am sure they would be pleased to receive inquiries from you about UCSD, my commitment to graduate education, or my style as a dissertation advisor.
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Current Ph.D. Students
Benjamin Brewer (Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy July 2017 |
| Dissertation | Chorus or Cacophony? The Implications of Multiple Voices in Legal Systems |
| Webpage |
Michael Duda (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy August 2019 |
| Dissertation | Regional Security Orders in Africa |
| Webpage |
Thomas Flaherty (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy October 2019 |
| Dissertation | The New Economic Geography of Trade Politics |
| Webpage |
Bianca Freeman (Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2021 |
| Dissertation | Racial Hierarchy, Law, and Intervention in International Relations |
| Webpage |
Geoffrey Hoffman (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy July 2021 |
| Dissertation | Chinese Internet Firms and Global Internet Freedom |
| Webpage |
M. Patrick Hulme (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2020 |
| Dissertation | The Power to Hurt and the Power to Declare War: Congress’s Latent War Powers and the Limits of Unilateral Military Action |
| Webpage |
Jiying Jiang (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy November 2019 |
| Dissertation | Policy Articulation and Communication in Chinese Bureaucracy |
| Webpage |
D.G. Kim (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2019 |
| Dissertation | The Causes and Consequences of Anti-Asian Racism in the United States |
| Webpage | https://dg-kim.com/ |
Alexandra Lange (Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy August 2020 |
| Dissertation | What is an ‘American Foreign Policy?’ National Identity and International Politics |
| Webpage |
Sichen Li (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2021 |
| Dissertation | Political Economy of High-Technology Disputes |
| Webpage |
Nathan Marino (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy December 2020 |
| Dissertation | Symbolic Politics of Climate Change |
| Webpage |
Gregorie Phillips (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy December 2018 |
| Dissertation | Brand Name Jihad: Global Extremism in a Transnational Age |
| Webpage |
Kevin Rossillion (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2021 |
| Dissertation | Escalation, Restraint, and Comparative Advantage in Conflict |
| Webpage |
Rachel Schoner (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy December 2018 |
| Dissertation | Autocrats, Political Opposition, and Individual Petitions in Human Rights Treaties |
| Webpage |
Michael E. Seese (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy September 2018 |
| Dissertation | Surveying the State: The Political Geography of Territorial Control in Africa |
| Webpage |
Rachel Skillman (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy Jan. 2021 |
| Dissertation | The Causes and Consequences of Foreign Land Investment |
| Webpage |
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2019 |
| Dissertation | Leaders, Domestic Audiences, and the Price of Peace |
| Webpage |
Brian Willis (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2021 |
| Dissertation | Middle Power Strategies, Security Institutions, and the Shadow of Great Power Rivalry |
| Webpage |
Zhengyu 'Eddie' Yang (Member)
| Ph.D. | Advanced to candidacy May 2021 |
| Dissertation | Repressive Institutions and the Politics of Artificial Intelligence |
| Webpage |
Past Ph.D. Students
Juliann Allison (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 1995 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | International environmental cooperation : North American air quality agreements as bargaining outcomes |
| Employment | University of California, Riverside |
| Webpage | http://facultyprofiles.ucr.edu/gender_studies_dept/faculty/Juliann_Allison/index.html |
Konstantin Ash (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2016 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Identity Group Allegiance in Civil Wars |
| Employment | University of Central Florida |
| Webpage | https://sciences.ucf.edu/politicalscience/people/ash-konstantin/ |
Matthew A. Baum (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2000 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Tabloid wars : the mass media, public opinion and the use of force abroad |
| Employment | John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University |
| Webpage | http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/mbaum/ |
Kyle C. Beardsley (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2006 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Politics by Means Other than War: Understanding International Mediation |
| Employment | Duke University |
| Webpage | http://people.duke.edu/~kcb38/ |
Megan Becker (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2015 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Build, Buy, or Ally: A Theory of Alternative Security Arrangements |
| Employment | University of Southern California |
| Webpage | http://dornsife.usc.edu/megan-becker/ |
Risa A. Brooks (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2000 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Institutions at the domestic/international nexus : the political-military origins of strategic integration, military effectiveness and war |
| Employment | Marquette University |
| Webpage | http://www.marquette.edu/polisci/faculty_brooks.shtml |
Robert L. Brown (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2008 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Nonproliferation Through Delegation |
| Employment | |
| Webpage | https://robertlouisbrown.wordpress.com |
Cameron Brown (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2014 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Vanishing Peace: Why Belligerents are Increasingly Reluctant to Make Formal Concessions |
| Employment | American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Jerusalem) |
| Webpage |
Michael Callen (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2011 (UCSD, Economics) |
| Dissertation | Essays in Conflict and Development |
| Employment | Rady School of Management, UCSD |
| Webpage | http://rady.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/callen/ |
Shannon Carcelli (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2018 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Bureaucracy at the Border: The Fragmentation of Foreign Aid |
| Employment | Post-Doctoral Fellow, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance (2018-2018); University of Maryland (2019-) |
| Webpage | https://www.shannoncarcelli.com |
Christina Cottiero (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2021 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Staying Alive: Regional Integration Organizations and Vulnerable Leaders |
| Employment | University of Utah |
| Webpage |
Araceli (Cesi) Cruz (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2013 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Social Networks and Electoral Strategies in the Philippines |
| Employment | University of British Columbia |
| Webpage | http://www.cesicruz.com/ |
Mark Culyba (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2011(UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Emergent Conflict Behavior: Strategic Interstate Bargaining as an N-player ABM |
| Employment | McKinsey & Company |
| Webpage |
Kathleen G. Cunningham (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2007 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Divided and Conquered: Why States and Self-determination Groups Fail in Bargaining Over Autonomy |
| Employment | University of Maryland |
| Webpage | http://www.kathleengallaghercunningham.com/ |
David Cunningham (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2006 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Veto Players and Civil War Duration |
| Employment | University of Maryland |
| Webpage | http://www.davidcunninghampolisci.com/ |
Daniel Enemark (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2012 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Network Architecture and Collective Political Action |
| Employment | Research Consultant |
| Webpage | www.danielenemark.com |
Christopher Fariss (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2013 |
| Dissertation | The Measurement and Assessment of Political Constructs Using Computational Modeling Techniques, with Applications to Repression Data |
| Employment | University of Michigan |
| Webpage | http://cfariss.com/ |
Lauren Lee Ferry (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2019 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt Restructuring |
| Employment | University of Mississippi |
| Webpage | https://www.laurenleeferry.com |
Ann Florini (Member)
| Ph.D. | 1995 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | Transparency: A New Norm of International Relations |
| Employment | University of Maryland |
| Webpage | https://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/faculty/ann-florini |
J. Andres Gannon (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2021 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Use Their Force: Interstate Security Alignments and the Distribution of Military Capabilities |
| Employment | Vanderbilt University |
| Webpage | http://dotanhaim.com |
Dotan Haim (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2018 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Networks and Insurgency: How Social Relationships Shape Conflict |
| Employment | Florida State University |
| Webpage | http://dotanhaim.com |
Kathleen J. Hancock (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2001 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Surrendering sovereignty : hierarchy in the international system and the former Soviet Union |
| Employment | Colorado School of Mines |
| Webpage | http://miper.mines.edu/Kathleen-J-Hancock |
Lindsay Heger (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2010 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | In the Cross-Hairs: How Terrorists Select Their Targets |
| Employment | OneEarth Future, Boulder CO |
| Webpage | http://oneearthfuture.org/about/bios/lindsay-heger |
Ethan Hollander (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2006 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Swords or Shields? Implementing and subverting the final solution in Nazi-occupied Europe |
| Employment | Wabash College |
| Webpage | http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/hollande/ |
Benjamin Horne (Member)
| Ph.D. | Awarded Posthumously 2013 (Economics) |
| Dissertation | Conflict and Third Party Mediation |
Susan Hyde (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2006 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Observing Norms: Explaining the Causes and Consequences of Internationally Monitored Elections |
| Employment | University of California, Berkeley |
| Website | https://susan.hyde.co |
Jihyeon Jeong (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2012 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Risky Neighbors adn Co-Ethnic Groups: The Political Logic of Fiscal Grants in China |
| Webpage |
Danielle Jung (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2012 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Organizational Ecology and Population Dynamics in Politics: An Agent-Based Model |
| Employment | Emory University |
| Webpage | http://www.daniellejung.com |
Jeff Kaplow (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2015 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Constraining Power of International Security Institutions |
| Employment | College of William and Mary |
| Webpage | http://www.jkaplow.net/ |
Scott Kastner (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2003 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Commerce in the shadow of conflict : domestic politics and the relationship between international conflict and economic interdependence |
| Employment | University of Maryland |
| Webpage | https://gvpt.umd.edu/facultyprofile/kastner/scott |
Jennifer Keister (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2011 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | States within States: Now Rebels Rule |
| Employment | |
| Webpage | http://jennifer-keister.com/ |
Jason Kuo (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2016 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Inspectors Beyond Borders: The Extraterritorial Governance of Food Safety in a Global Economy |
| Employment | National Taiwan University |
| Webpage | https://jasonkuo.jimdofree.com |
Daniel Lake (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2004 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Political Economy of Complying with Coercion |
| Employment | State University of New York, Plattsburgh |
| Webpage | http://www.plattsburgh.edu/academics/polisci/faculty/lake.php |
David Lindsey (C0-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2016 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Information and War |
| Employment | Baruch College |
| Webpage | http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/political_science/David_Lindsey.htm |
Adeline Lo (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2016 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Prediction and Variable Selection in Political Science |
| Employment | Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Politics, Princeton University |
| Webpage | https://loadeline.com/ |
Steven Lobell (Member)
| Ph.D. | 1997 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | Managing Hegemonic Decline: Dilemmas of Strategy and Finance |
| Employment | University of Utah |
| Webpage | Lobell |
James Long (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2012 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Voting, Fraud, and Violence: Political Accountability in AFrican Elections |
| Employment | University of Washington |
| Webpage | https://jamesdlong.wordpress.com/ |
Yonatan Lupu (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2012 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | International Rules, National Implementation: How Domestic Politics Condition the Effects of International Legal Commitments |
| Employment | George Washington University |
| Webpage | http://yonatanlupu.com/ |
Kelly Matush (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2018 |
| Dissertation | Going Public Abroad: When and Why Leaders Address Foreign Public |
| Employment | Florida State University |
| Webpage | https://www.kellymatush.com |
Jonathan Markowitz (Chair)
| Ph.D. | May 2014 |
| Dissertation | When and Why States Project Power |
| Employment | University of Southern California |
| Webpage | https://dornsife.usc.edu/jonathan-markowitz/ |
R. Blake McMahon (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | April 2015 |
| Dissertation | Protecting the State: Strategic Choice at the Nexus of Internal and External Security |
| Employment | U.S. Air Force Research Institute |
| Webpage | http://rmcmahon.spacecrafted.com/ |
Rupal Mehta (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | July 2014 |
| Dissertation | Deproliferation Dynamics: Why States Give Up Nuclear Weapons Programs |
| Employment | University of Nebraska, Lincoln |
| Webpage | http://polisci.unl.edu/rupal-mehta |
Brandon Merrell (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2019 |
| Dissertation | Leaders, Audiences, and the Use of Force |
| Employment | Post-Doctoral Fellow, Yale University |
| Webpage | http://www.brandonmerrell.com |
Matthew Nanes (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2017 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | From the Bottom-Up: Policing and Sectarian Conflict in Divided Soceities |
| Employment | St. Louis University |
| Webpage | https://mnanes.wordpress.com/ |
Neil Narang (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2011 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Aiding and Abetting: How International Humanitarian Assistance Can Inadvertently Prolong Civil War and How Combatants Respond |
| Employment | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Webpage | http://neilnarang.com |
Antonio Ortiz Mena L.N. (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2001 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Politics of Institutional Choice: International Trade and Dispute Settlement Mechanisms |
| Employment | Albright Stonebridge Group |
| Webpage | https://www.albrightstonebridge.com/team/antonio-ortiz-mena |
Robert Pahre (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 1990 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | Hegemonic strategies : modeling the foreign economic policies of dominant states, 1815-1955 |
| Employment | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| Webpage | http://www.pol.illinois.edu/people/pahre |
Kal Raustiala (Member)
| Ph.D. | 1996 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Sources of State Interests: British and American Policy Towards International Environmental Cooperation, 1983-1993 |
| Employment | UCLA Law School |
| Webpage | https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/kal-raustiala/ |
Chad Rector (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2003 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Federations in International Politics |
| Employment | Marymount University |
| Webpage | https://www.chadrector.net |
John E. Richards (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 1997 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The domestic politics of international regulatory policy : the regulatory institutions for trade in aviation services |
| Employment | Microsoft |
| Webpage | na |
Stephanie Rickard (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2005 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Choosing Conflict: Explaining the Form of Redistributive Politics |
| Employment | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| Webpage | http://personal.lse.ac.uk/rickard/ |
Marc Rosenblum (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2000 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | At Home and Abroad: The Foreign and Domestic Sources of U.S. Immigration Policy |
| Employment | Migration Policy Institute |
Idean Salehyan (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2006 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Rebels Without Borders: State Boundaries, Transnational Opposition, and Civil Conflict |
| Employment | University of North Texas |
| Webpage | http://idean.salehyan.com/ |
Maria Sampanis (Member)
| Ph.D. | 1996 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | Coalition of the Weak: How Declining Hegemons Stay Big Among the Small |
| Employment | California State University Sacramento |
| Webpage |
Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 1991 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | A model of trade policy liberalization : looking inside the British “hegemon” of the nineteenth century |
| Employment | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| Webpage | http://personal.lse.ac.uk/schonhar/ |
Samuel Seljan (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2010 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Economic Interests in the Domestic Politics of War: Evidence from U.S. Decisions to Go to War with Iraq in 1991 and 2003 |
| Employment | Research Analysis, AppNexus |
| Webpage |
Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2016 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Essays on Protect Mobilization in Authoritarian Regimes |
| Employment | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Webpage | https://zacharyst.com/ |
Adam Stulberg (Member)
| Ph.D. | 1996 (UCLA) |
| Dissertation | Decisional Uncertainty and Grand Strategy: Domestic Institutional Sources of International Over-Zealousness and Under-Achievement |
| Employment | Georgia Tech |
| Webpage | https://www.iac.gatech.edu/people/faculty/stulberg |
Kati Suominen (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2004 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Rules of Origin in Global Commerce |
| Employment | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Webpage | http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/global-economics-and-management/faculty/suominen |
Clara Suong (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2018 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | In the Name of National Interest: Persuasion in Security Politics |
| Employment | New York University (Post-Doctoral Fellow) |
| Webpage | http://www.clarahsuong.com |
Michael J. Tierney (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2003 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Commitments, Credibility, and International Cooperation: The Integration of Soviet Successor States in Western Multilateral Regimes |
| Employment | College of William and Mary |
| Webpage | http://wmpeople.wm.edu/site/page/mjtier/michaeltierney |
Jeff Timmons (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2004 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Fiscal Contract: States, Taxes, and Public Services |
| Employment | New York University-Abu Dhabi |
| Webpage | https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/social-science/faculty/jeffrey-f-timmons.html |
Kenneth Vandevelde (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2012 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The First Bilateral Investment Treaties: Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaties in the Truman Administration |
| Employment | Thomas Jefferson School of Law |
| Webpage | https://www.abigailvaughn.com |
Abigail Vaughn (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2019 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Geopolitics and the 21st Century Global Financial Safety Net |
| Employment | Georgia Tech |
| Webpage | https://www.abigailvaughn.com |
Jessica Chen Weiss (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2008 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Powerful Patriots: Nationalism, Diplomacy, and the Strategic Logic of Anti-Foreign Protests |
| Employment | Cornell University |
| Webpage | http://www.jessicachenweiss.com/ |
Nicolas Weller (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2008 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | The Causes and Consequences of Tax Policy |
| Employment | University of California, Riverside |
| Webpage | http://politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/weller/ |
Laura Wimberley (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2007 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Pyrrhic Peace: Governance Costs and the Expected Utility of War |
| Employment | California State University Northridge |
| Webpage | laura.wimberley@csun.edu |
Wendy Wong (Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2008 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Centralizing Principles: How Amnesty International Shaped Human Rights Politics through its Transnational Network |
| Employment | University of Toronto |
| Webpage | http://www.wendyhwong.com/ |
Jason Wu (Member)
| Ph.D. | 2018 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Ideology and Public Opinion in China |
| Employment | Indiana University |
| Webpage | https://www.jasonyuyanwu.com |
Jack Zhang (Co-Chair)
| Ph.D. | 2018 (UCSD) |
| Dissertation | Is China an Exception to the Commercial Peace? |
| Employment | University of Kansas |
| Webpage | https://sites.google.com/view/jackzhang/ |