About
I am a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in comparative politics and research methodology. In my research I examine political violence, historical political economy, and the long shadows that state institutions cast over political life. My current projects include work on the political legacies of Soviet-era repression, the distribution of wartime casualties, and the politics of higher education in multiethnic states. Across these projects, I work in causal inference, focusing predominantly on observational settings.
My published work, co-authored with colleagues at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, looks at how citizens form judgments about government performance. I have also worked with international organizations including the International Organization for Migration, the V-Dem Institute, and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law.
I am also an amateur boxer 🥊, film photographer 📷, and hiking enthusiast 🏔️.
Education
- MA in Political Science (with distinction)
- BA in Political Science, International Relations, and Human Rights (with honors), dual degree with Bard College, NY
Before the PhD
- Research Assistant, Institute for Public Management and Governance
- Online Learning Assistant
- Monitoring and Evaluation Intern
- Intern
Research
Research interests: political violence, historical political economy, ethnic politics, conflict, causal inference, observational data.
Working Papers
- “While the World Looks Away: Third-Party Conflicts and Battlefield Escalation in Ukraine” (working paper)
- “Schooling the Periphery: Centralization and Ethnic Minority Higher Education in Russia” (working paper)
- “The Sunny Side of Essentialism: Race and Jazz in Contemporary Russia” (working paper)
Publications
- “The Bureaucratic Reputation Scale: Cross-Country and Cross-Language Validation” Public Management Review, 27(10): 2424-2446, 2025.
- “The Social Construction of Performance Judgements: Do Opinions of Others Influence How Citizens Evaluate Government?” International Public Management Journal, 2025.
Presentations & Talks
- ASEEES
- PolMeth
- MPSA
- BASEES
Teaching
- Math Camp for Incoming Graduate Students in PoliSci
- PS344: The Russian War on Ukraine (Undergrad)
- PS812: Intro to Statistical Methods in PoliSci (Grad)
- International Law and Policymaking, Badger Precollege Program
- PS170: Intro to Research Design and Methods in PoliSci (Undergrad)
- PS120: Introduction to Comparative Politics (Undergrad)
Fellowships & Awards
- Research grant, WU Projects ($11,000)
Writing
V-Dem's "Graph of the Week", 2021
Media
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Родной язык: 2. Отсутствие ("Native Language: 2. Absence")
December 2025.
Guest on this episode of the Russian-language podcast about Indigenous peoples of Russia, part of a season on growing up without speaking one's ancestral language.