PhD Students

Kurt Albaugh
PhD Student– American Government
BS United States Naval Academy; MA George Mason University; MA Georgetown University
Naval operations; International law; Technology

Simon Ballesteros
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Nicholas Barden
PhD Student – Political Theory

Cammie Jo Bolin
PhD Candidate – American Government
BA Centre College; MA Georgetown University
Women and politics; Political representation; Campaigns and elections; Religion and politics.

PhD dissertation
Redesigning Women? Congressional Candidate Advertising Strategy and Women’s Political Engagement
Jamil Scott (Chair), Michele L. Swers, Clyde Wilcox

Publications
Benjamin R. Knoll and Cammie Jo Bolin. (2018) “She Preached the Word: Women’s Ordination in Modern America”. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 
Benjamin R. Knoll and Cammie jo Bolin. (2019). “Religious Communication and Persuasion”. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, edited by Paul A. Djupe, Mark Rozell and Ted G. Jelen. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cammie Jo Bolin. Women as Religious Leaders: The Gendered Politics of Shutting Down. (forthcoming).

Chris Bolz
PhD Student – International Relations
BA United States Military Academy; MS Missouri University
Nuclear weapons (Weapons of Mass Destruction); Emerging technology and China

Niccolo Bonifai
PhD Student – International Relations

Laura Bures
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Benjamin Burnley
PhD Student – American Government
BA Florida State University; MS Middle Tennessee University
Technology; Political communication; Political knowledge; Tech policy; Public opinion

Justin Casey
PhD Candidate – International Relations
BS Townson University; MA Georgetown University
Subversion; Interloping; Power politics; Transnationalism; Ideology

PhD dissertation
Legitimate Concerns: Repertoires of Interloping and Great Power Subversion
Daniel Nexon (Chair), David Edelstein, Abraham L. Newman

Publications
Justin Casey. With Friends Like These: The Disadvantages of Total Ideology. 
Justin Casey and Lucas Dolan. Raymond Aron and the Decline of the Unipolar-Homogeneous Moment.
Justin Casey and Lucas Dolan. Three Waves of Transnationalism in International Relations.

Cynthia Charlton
PhD Student – Political Theory
MA McGill University
Eighteenth-century French and Scottish enlightenment; French liberalism; Liberal and constitutional thought; History of political thought; Political economy.

Joel Chavez
PhD Student – Comparative Government
MA Texas A&M University
Comparative governing structures, public policy processes, and public health outcomes in the domain of natural resources; Field of energy production.

Sarah E. Fischer
PhD Candidate – Comparative Government
BA Pennsylvania State University; MA University of Copenhagen and Universty of Sheffield
Global health policy and systems research; Politics of development; Research ethics; Ethnographic methods

Publications
Kim Yi Dionne, Boniface Dulani, and Sarah E. Fischer. Pandemic Amidst Political Crisis: Malawi’s Experience with and Response to COVID-19. In Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19, edited by Scott L. Greer, Elizabeth J. King, Elize Massard de Fonseca, and Andréé Peralta-Santos. University of Michigan Press.
Sarah E. Fischer (and co-authors). (2020). Is it About the ‘Where’ or the ‘How’? Comment on Defining Global Health as Public Health Somewhere Else. BMJ Global Health.
Sarah E. Fischer and Martin Strandberg-Larsen. (2016). Power and Agenda-Setting in Tanzanian Health Policy: An Analysis of Stakeholder Perspectives. International Journal of Health Policy and Management 5(6): 355-363.

Andrew P. Gibson
PhD Candidate – Political Theory/International Relations
BA Michigan State University; MA The University of Chicago; MA Georgetown University
Republicanism; Florentine political thought; Machiavelli and Machiavellianism; International relations theory.

PhD dissertation
The Malleability of Machiavelli: Readings of Machiavelli in the Early to Mid-Twentieth Century
Shannon Stimson (Chair), Joshua Cherniss, Stefan Eich

Publications
Andrew P. Gibson. “James Burnham’s Machiavellians”. 18 September 2020.
Andrew P. Gibson and Charles A. Kupchan. “The Geopolitics of the American Republic: Spatial Expansion, Redemption, and the Unending Quest for Virtuous Security. (Working paper).

Christian Alejandro Gonzales
PhD Student – Political Theory/Comparative Government
BA Columbia University
18th and 19th century political thought (Britain, France, the US); French and American revolutions; Slavery; Abolition; Historiography

Richard Greszler
PhD Student – International Relations

Deborah Groen
PhD Student – Comparative Government/American Government

Matthew David Hamilton
PhD Student – Political Theory
BA Moody Bible Institute; MA Princeton Theological Seminary
Political theory; International relations; Empire; Hegemony; Coercive force; Black international relations; Religion and politics; Nature of historical development; St Augustine of Hippo. 

Rashaud Hannah
PhD Student – American Government

Tranae Hardy
PhD Candidate – American Government
BS University of Pennsylvania; MA Georgetown University
Political parties; Congress; Scandal
PhD dissertation
Managing the Brand: Party Responses to Scandal
Hans Noel (Chair), Jonathan Ladd, Michelle Swers

Sarah Hayes
PhD Student – American Government
BA California State University; MA University of California
REP, political behavior, and public policy; Mass and elite political behavior impacts on dyadic representation  

Jonas Heering
PhD Student – International Relations
BA Texas Christian University; MA Georgetown University
Internet governance and International relations; Regulation of social media, disinformation, and digital authoritarianism 

Steven Huckleberry
PhD Student – International Relations
BA Columbus State University; MA US Naval War College & Salve Regina University
International Security & Great Power Competition

Woojeong Jang
PhD Student – International Relations

Suna Jeong
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Sebastian Kennelly
PhD Student – Political Theory

Ahmed Khattab
PhD Candidate – Comparative Government
BA American University in Cairo; BBA American University in Cairo; MA University of Toronto
Migration; Diaspora politics; Citizenship; Autocracy

PhD dissertation
Crises and Emigrants: The Engineering of Domestic Politics Abroad
Abstract
How do political crises affect the relationship between home states and their emigrants? When offered political engagement opportunities, why do some emigrants choose to participate, refrain, or shift between these alternatives? What explains these variations? Through the lens of the Arab uprisings and antecedent politics, I examine how developing [sending] states in crisis engage with their extraterritorial citizens. My dissertation strives to account for the contentious politics of activating and deactivating diasporic communities during politically turbulent times. 

Publications
Ahmed Khattab. “When Social Mobility is Not an Option: How the Kafala System Encourages Anti-Immigrant Sentiment”. (Under review).
Ahmed Khattab. “A Tale of Two Uprisings: Egyptians and the Military”. (R&R).
Ahmed Khattab. “Political Crises and Diaspora Enfranchisement: Egypt and Tunisia’s Emigrant-Citizens”. (Working paper).

Da Sul Kim
PhD Student – Comparative Government
BA Chung-Ang University (South Korea)
Political economy of poverty; Characteristics of regimes(authoritarianism) and institutions; Foreign investment & redistribution policy

Ji Min Kim
PhD Student – Political Theory
MA New York University
People’s sovereignty in liberal democracies; Constitutional justification of ‘the people’; Political participation through non-institutional means

Rabea Kirmani
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Thijs Kleinpaste
PhD Student – Political Theory

Nick Kodama
PhD Candidate – International Relations
BA Brandeis University; MA Georgetown University
Nuclear deterrence; Non-proliferation; East Asian security; Japanese foreign policy.

Publications
Nick Kodama. (2021). “Threatening the Unthikable: Strategic Stability and the Credibility of North Korea’s Nuclear Threats”. Journal of Global Security Studies 6 (1): 1-15.
Nick Kodama. (2019). “Dynamic Institutionalization: The Foundations of Japan’s Radioactive Problem”. The Nonproliferation Review 26 (1-2): 43-60.

Theodore Lai
PhD Student – Political Theory
BA Yale-NUS College(Singapore); MA University of Chicago
Ethics within contemporary context of war and national emergencies; Special allowances and exceptions under legal provision

Theodore Landsman
PhD Student – American Government

Cathy Lee
PhD Student – International Relations

Claire Lee
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Erin Lemons
PhD Student – International Relations
BA Pennsylvania State University; MA Pennsylvania State University
Security; Diplomacy

Pei-Hsuan Lin
PhD Student – Political Theory

Timothy Liptrot
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Sergio Lozano
PhD Student – International Relations
BS US Air Force Academy; MBA University of Arizona
International Security; Civil wars; Proxy wars; Sovereignty

Andy Marshall
PhD Candidate – Comparative Government

PhD dissertation
Language Policy and the Nation in the East Africa

Kylie McGlothlin
PhD Student – American Government
BA Indiana University
19th and 20th century political thought; History of political though; Literature and political theory

Patrick McSweeney
PhD Student – American Government

Shea Minter
PhD Student – International Relations

Ankushi Mitra
PhD Student – Comparative Government
BS Georgetown University; MS Trinity College Dublin
Comparative citizenship, meaningful citizenship, and uneven development; Sustainable development

Jessica Norris
PhD Student – Comparative Government
BA University of California, Santa Barbara
Energy and environmental policy design, specifically within the Chinese political context; Focus on origins and viability of China’s burgeoning cap and trade policy

Ikuma Ogura
PhD Candidate – American Government
Public opinion; Political psychology; Quantitative methods

PhD dissertation
Group Traits or Issue Positions? Political Parties in People’s Minds
Michael A. Bailey (Chair), Jonathan Ladd, Hans Noel
Abstract
Trough original survey experiments and secondary analyses of existing public opinion surveys, my dissertation project empirically analyzes (i) how U.S. voters understand party labels and (ii) its relation to affective polarization.

Maria Pachon
PhD Student – International Relations

Gabrielle Panzo
PhD Student – American Government
BA University of Miami; MA University of Miami

Anna Paula Pellegrino
PhD Candidate – Comparative Government
BS PUC-Rio; MA PUC-Rio
Policy process in developing countries; Organized criminal violence; Brazil and Latin America

Federico Perico
PhD Student – Political Theory

Benjamin Reese
PhD Student – American Government
BA Hood College
Legislative Politics, Formal Theory, and Quantitative Methodologies

Nayeli L. Riano
PhD Student – Political Theory
BA University of Pennsylvania; MA University of St Andrews
History of political thought; 19th-20th century Latin American political thought; Hispanic and German intellectual influences; Spanish liberal philosophy; Theories of citizenship; Philosophy of history

Publications
Nayeli L. Riano. “An Aesthetic Arbiter of Politics: George Santayana’s Concept of the Psyche Revisited” Overheard in Seville: Bulletin of the Santayana Society.
Nayeli L. Riano. “Henry Adams’ Philosophy of History: The Study of Force, Motion, and Modernity” Cosmos + Taxis Journal 7 (3-4).

Kelly Rolfes-Haase
PhD Candidate – American Government
BA Rollins College; MPP Georgetown University; MA Georgetown University
Public policy analysis; Social policy; Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Identity and Politics; State politics; Research methods.

PhD dissertation
State Legislator Identities and the New Politics of Family and Medical Leave
Michael A. Bailey (Chair), Michele L. Swers, Mark C. Rom

Publications
Kelly Rolfes-Haase and Michele Swers. (2021) “Understanding the Gender and Partisan Dynamics of Abortion Voting in the House of Gender, 1-35.
Kelly Rolfes-Haase and Vicki Shabo. (2020). “Learning from the Past: How Prior Federal Legislative Efforts Can Inform Future Legislative Strategies: Implications for National Paid Family and Medical Leave Legislation”. New America Better Life Lab Report.
Elisabeth Wright Burak and Kelly Rolfes-Haase. (2018). “Using Medicaid to Ensure the Healthy Social and Emotional Development of Infants and Toddlers”. Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Report.

Henry Saroyan
PhD Student – Political Theory
BA The University of Chicago
History of republican thought; English Civil War; Ancient Greek political thought; International relations theory

Filip Savatic
PhD Student – International Relations

Tomohiro Shibata
PhD Candidate – International Relations
MA The University of Chicago
International relations theory

Daniel Solomon
PhD Student – Comparative Government

Alexander Sullivan
PhD Student – International Relations

Howard Tai
PhD Candidate – Political Theory
BA Georgetown University
American liberalism; Immigration; Citizenship; Transnationalism

Kenton Thibaut
PhD Student – International Relations
MA John Hopkins University SAIS
China domestic politics; Technology governance; Emerging technologies; Chinese foreign policies.

Brian Thorn
PhD Candidate – Political Theory
BA University of New Hampshire; MA The University of Chicago
History of political economic thought.

Yogesh Vaswani
PhD Student – Political Theory

Samuel Walton
PhD Student – Political Theory

LeRhonda Washington
PhD Student – International Relations
BA Cornell University; MA Georgetown University
Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear(CBRN) Defense

Henry Watson
PhD Student – American Government
BA American University; MA American University
Safety net; Housing; Policy feedbacks; Representation of the poor

Dain Yoo
PhD Student – Comparative Government
BA Binghamton University; MA Seoul National University
Authoritarianism; Repression; Political rethoric; Text-as data; Middle East politics

Qi Zhang
PhD Candidate – International Relations
BS Townson University; MA Georgetown University
Sanctions; Global banking network; Foreign aid