Grad Students

Abel Amado
E-mail: adamado@bu.edu

Abel Amado obtained a B.A. in International Relations, with specialization on International Cultural Relations, from ISCSP (Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences) of the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal in 1998. Three years later, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, he obtained a B.A. in Political Science. Abel’s areas of interests are: African politics, with special incidence to Portuguese speaking African countries, social movements (especially violent forms of social manifestation such as rebellion and/or revolution with emphasis to African situation) and politics of development.

Alejandro Avenburg
E-mail: avenburg@bu.edu
Office: PLS 210

Alejandro Avenburg received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires in 2003. In 2009 he completed his dissertation for the Master in International Relations at Flacso- San Andres University. Alejandro’s areas of interest are International Relations, Comparative Politics and Latin American Politics.

Josie Brown
E-mail:josieb@bu.edu

Josie Brown received her BA in Political Science from Assumption College in 2010. Her focus is on Political Theory and Comparative Politics, with a focus on Russia.  She is also interested in the intersections of language, contemporary cultural trends and classical political thought.  After years of living in DC and working in both the civil service and politics, she hopes to move into teaching and writing accessible political theory that can develop the re-emergence of active citizenship in the United States.

Deniz Bulut
E-mail: bulutd@bu.edu
Office: PLS 210

Deniz has received her B.A. in Political science and public administration from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. She has worked as a teaching fellow for various political science, international relations and political thought courses. Her research interests include contemporary political theory, Turkish politics and politics of European Union. She has recently passed her qualifying examinations and is currently working on her dissertation proposal.

Chien-Kai Chen
E-mail: ckchen@bu.edu

Chien-Kai Chen received his B.A. degree in political science from National Taiwan University in 2003 and his M.A. degree in political science from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, in 2007. He entered the program in Fall 2007 and passed the Ph.D. qualifying exams in Spring 2009. Putting his focus on Northeast Asia, he has been doing research on both international relations and comparative politics concerning the region. He is especially interested in the topics about China and Taiwan, such as the rise of China, China’s foreign policy, China-Taiwan relations, the economic ties between China and Taiwan, the economic development in China and Taiwan, and Taiwan’s democratization. He successfully defended his dissertation proposal in Fall 2009 and is currently working on his dissertation titled “Cross-Strait Economic Exchanges, Taiwan’s Domestic Politics, and China-Taiwan Relations, 1990-2008.”

Hao Chen
E-mail: haochen@bu.edu

Hao Chen received his B.A. in political science from Hunan University, China in 2009 and his M.A. degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. Hao’s current research focuses on Chinese politics, comparative politics and international relations. He entered the PhD program at Boston University in Fall 2011.

Hao worked as a Research Assistant at the World Security Institute, a think tank Washington, D.C. in 2010. His work focused on East Asian security issues, including Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s space program and its integration program. Hao also worked as an Interviewer for the Washington Observer Weekly and wrote several articles on the South China Sea issue, the Senkaku/Diaoyu Island issue and the Cross-Strait issue, etc.

Sijin Cheng
E-mail: sjcheng@bu.edu

Sijin Cheng received her BA from the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing, China in 1996. She is a China analyst at Eurasia Group and a member of the Asia Practice. She is currently working on her dissertation which studies the role of China’s concern with its reputation in its deterrence behavior since 1949.

Ian Chinich
E-mail: ichinich@bu.edu

Ian Chinich received his BA in Political Science and History from Rutgers University in 2007. He has spent time traveling through the Balkans, Africa and the MiddleEast to work with various NGOs and activist organizations. Ian was accepted intothe Ph.D. program in the Fall of 2009. His research is directed toward the politics of the Middle East and political economy with a specific focus on organized labor andprotest movements.

David Collier
E-mail: dcollier@bu.edu
Office: PLS 311D

David Collier received his BA and MA in Politics and History from the University of Glasgow in 2002. He has worked as a Research and Information Officer at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh library and as a research assistant at the Centre for the Study of Islam at the University of Glasgow. David is interested in comparative politics with a focus on Islam and in particular the politics and history of Iran.

Robert Daniel
E-mail: misterlearn@yahoo.com

Robert Daniel entered the Ph.D. program at Boston University in fall, 2007.  He was born and raised in Toronto.  He obtained his B.A. in history in California in 2000 and his Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Toronto in 2002.

Mr. Daniel is a teacher by profession.  He has worked as both a community college instructor and high school teacher.  While focusing on his dissertation, he works part time giving educational support to at-risk and disabled students.

Mr. Daniel’s general areas of interest within political science are political theory and policy.  His research interests are child care policy pertaining to the gifted (and other categories of special needs children) and prescriptive research on privately funded child care.  Mr. Daniel’s career interests after graduation are to work in the private sector, continuing to teach while also doing research and development towards a new form of child care institution.

FU En-Ping
E-mail: fuenping@bu.edu

Considering himself a perpetual student of modern world history, FU En-Ping entered the program in 2008, carrying with him special interests in international relations and comparative patterns of modernization/development with a regional focus on the Asia-Pacific.

Before coming to Boston, En-Ping took an internship at the United Nations in the capacity of adviser to the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Nauru, while working towards his M.A. in East Asian Studies at St. John’s University in New York. He received his B.A. from Fu Jen University in his native country, Taiwan, majoring in Japanese language and literature. He is determined to dedicate his future career to international education and the promotion of cross-national understanding.

Luke Hartman
E-mail: lth23@bu.edu

Luke Hartman earned his MPA from Cornell University in 2010, with a concentration in International Development Studies. He received his BA from Skidmore College in 2003, with majors in French and Anthropology. His current areas of research interest include comparative politics, international relations, democratization, governance, and political identity formation. Luke entered the PhD program in Fall 2010.

Lilian Jaimes
E-mail: lilianj@bu.edu

Lilian Jaimes received her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from CIDE and her Master in Public Policy at ITAM, both in Mexico. Lilian is a Fulbright Fellow and her area of interest is Latin American Politics with a focus on Mexico and Brazil. Lilian entered the PhD program in Fall 2010.

 

Anshul Jain
E-mail: ajain2@bu.edu

Anshul Jain graduated from Duke University in 2002 with a B.A. in Political Science. His undergraduate research focused on theoretical modeling of hostage crises. After graduating from Duke he moved to Boston and eventually became an educator. Prior to entering Boston University, he worked for the Boston Public Schools as a high school teacher.

Anshul’s dissertation, Open Networks and Scattered Peoples, concentrates on the role of new media in the participation of subgroups of the Indian diaspora in the political life of their home country. Other ongoing projects include: “New Media and Civil Society in Iran”—a study of how the evolution of smaller media formats have impacted the contours of civil society, state control and opposition activism in Iran since the 1960s; “Post-Presidential Activism”—an examination of the role of former U.S. Presidents in articulating foreign policy positions and objectives; “Retroactive Rehabilitation”—an inquiry into the incidence of enhanced reputations enjoyed by formerly reviled autocrats in unstable states across conflict-ridden regions of the world; and, “Interdisciplinary Security Coordination”—a study centering on emerging security issues (environmental conditions, climate change, food and water resources and disease epidemiology) and their roles in national security planning.

Anshul is a Boston University Presidential Teaching Fellow and entered the University in the Fall of 2008. He has presented papers at conferences of the American Political Science Association (2011), the Midwest Political Science Association (2012) and the New School for Social Science Research (2012), and is currently revising several articles for journal submission.

Ji Soo Jeon
E-mail: jeonjs@bu.edu

Ji Soo Jeon received her M.S. in Public Policy and Management from the H. John III Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University in 2011, with a focus on policy analysis; and received her B.S. in Policy and Management with a minor in Professional Writing also from Carnegie Mellon University in 2010. During her master study, she published a paper titled “The Rapid Industrialization of Seoul City and its Implications,” in The Heinz Journal, wrote papers on China-North Korea relations and the implications on Chinese Property Rights Law, and produced policy memos on public poilcy issues ranging from education poilcy, human rights issues, health care, and ethics in public policy. She served as a research assistant at the Social Sciences Department at Carnegie Mellon, focusing on behavioral and decision research. Her current areas of interest include comparative politics and political economy, with a regional focus on East Asia (Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan). Some potential topics include: interplay of policy and politics in East Asia, contemporary China’s foreign affairs, and Korean political economy. She is also interested in behavioral economics and sociology, understanding peoples’ behaviors and decision making process, and how they shape the world as we see today.

Ippei Kamae
E-mail: kamaeip@bu.edu

Ippei Kamae received his B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2002 and 2004 respectively. From 2001 to 2004 Ippei served as an intern in the office of Mr. Shinzo Abe, current Prime Minister of Japan and Member of the Japanese House of Representatives. He also worked as an assistant researcher, from 2002 to 2004, in the social science division of the Japan’s Independent Institute Co., Ltd., a Tokyo-based think tank that advises Japanese ministries, agencies, and private firms on national security, regional analyses, and civil defense issues.

Ippei entered the Ph.D. program at Boston University in September 2004 and completed his coursework as a fellow of the Japan Student Service Organization (JASSO, former Japan Scholarship Foundation) with the Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Grant from 2004 until 2007.

Ippei finished his qualifying examination in February 2007, and is currently working on his dissertation while he serves as a researcher at the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University. His area of specialization is Asia-Pacific international relations, Japanese diplomacy, and the nuclear proliferation in East Asia.

De-Yuan Kao
E-mail: dykao@bu.edu

De-Yuan Kao entered the program in Fall 2006. His research interests include U.S.foreign policy, U.S.-China-Taiwan relations, and international regimes. His dissertation applies enduring rivalry theory to analyze the cross-Strait relations. He was in the Institute of European and American Studies at the Academia Sinica in Taipei as a visiting fellow during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Hill Krishnan
E-mail: hillkrishnan@gmail.com

Hill Krishnan’s research interests focus on international security, science and technology in international relations, and nuclear non-proliferation. His current PhD dissertation, tentatively titled “American Amygdala: America’s Addiction to Airplanes, Atomic Weapons and Automatons,” focuses on the “diminishing marginal returns” of American military technology in the current era of asymmetrical warfare. Hill teaches “International Relations in the Post WW II Era” at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University, along with three additional new courses. He has also taught calculus courses for undergraduates at Baruch College, as well as an undergraduate humanities core course at New York University called “Ideas and Texts.” After receiving his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 from Anna University in India, Hill moved to the U.S. and graduated with a Masters in Ergonomics and Biomechanics from New York University in 2004. He subsequently earned a Masters in Global Affairs in 2009 from New York University. Hill is also an entertainer who has performed dancing, acting and standup comedy all his life on stage, TV commercials, and movies.

Hae Won Lee
E-mail: hwlee11@bu.edu

Hae Won Lee received her MA in Political Science from Sookmyung Women’s University in 2005 and her BA in Political Science from Sookmyung Women’s University in 2003. She is interested in studying the political economy of regional integration processes, specifically in Europe and East Asia.

Hope Lozano-Bielat
E-mail: hope.bielat@gmail.com

Hope Lozano-Bielat received a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Her current graduate work is focused on women’s rights, religious freedom, and democratization in post-Communist Eastern Europe. She has co-authored and contributed to publications on religion, gender and public policy through the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. In her spare time, Hope is writing a book on the gender specific consequences of the economic recession in the U.S.

Laura Lucas
E-mail: lucaslc@bu.edu

Laura Lucas has presented several papers to the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association and the Midwest Political Science Association (most recently in 2008), including “The Institutional Determinants of Political Sophistication” and “The Political Independent: Cross-Pressures and the Rejection of Party Identification,” the latter co-authored with Cheng-Shan Liu. She serves as the Director of Research and Training for the International Consortium for Law and Development; in this capacity she has consulted with legislation drafters and other ministry officials in several countries. She has conducted public administration research with H. George Frederickson (2002-2005). She has also worked with the Center for Russian and East European Studies and on an NSF study of citizen-official interactions. Laura holds an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Kansas, and B.A. degrees in History, English, and Education. She also studied in the EITM Institute at Washington University in St. Louis.

Her research interests include institutional effects on political behavior and representation, the relationships between governmental institutions and citizens, and the role of law in development. She is currently studying the comparative effects of legislation drafting institutions on participation and policy outcomes, and conducting a study of citizen participation mechanisms in Greater Boston.

Matthew Maguire
Office: PLS 311D
Email: mwm@bu.edu

Matthew Maguire received his MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2008) and his BA in History from Cornell University (2003). His current areas of interest include comparative political economy, public policy, and business-government relations. Matthew entered the PhD program at Boston University in Fall 2009.

Andreea Maierean
E-mail: maierean@bu.edu
Office:PLS 203

Andreea graduated in 2004 with a major in Political Science and a minor in Sociology from The National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. During college she studied one year with an Erasmus scholarship at the University of Trieste. In 2005, she received her M.A. in Political Science and a Certificate in Political Communication from Central European University, Budapest. Her M.A. thesis, “The Media Coverage of the Romanian Revolution” was published in 2006.

In June 2007, she participated in The Viadrina Summer University: “Religion and Modernity Societal Determination and its Cultural Potential”. The intensive three week program brought together leading researchers from different areas to explore the role of religion in modern societies. In July 2007, she took part in Greece in the Olympia Summer Seminar: “The Challenges of International Media Technology and Policy” organized by the Kokkalis Foundation and the Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism. In July 2008, Andreea was one of the participants in Bremen University’s Changing Europe Summer School: Central and Eastern Europe in a Globalized World.

Andreea’s major field of study is Comparative Politics with a special interest in the post-communist transitions of Eastern Europe. Since 2006, she was a teaching fellow for: PO 101 Introduction to Political Science, PO 271 Introduction to International Relations, PO 241 Introduction to Public Policy and PO 251 Introduction to Comparative Politics. She passed her comprehensive examinations in April 2008 and defended her dissertation prospectus in May 2009. Andreea was also a Junior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Science in Vienna in 2009-2010.

Grant Marlier
E-mail: gmarlier@bu.edu

Grant Marlier is writing his dissertation on the evolution of use of force norms within the UN Security Council. His primary field of interest is international relations, but he also studies comparative politics and US foreign policy.

Grant obtained a BA in Political Science, with a focus in International Relations, from Ohio State University. While at Ohio State, Grant published a paper entitled “Insecurity, Scarcity, and Violence,” in The Journal of Politics & International Affairs (2007). He also wrote, with co-author De Yuan Kao, “The Evolution of China’s Normative Position on the of Use of Force,” a chapter in The EU, the US and China: Towards the New International Order?, EE Publishing, (forthcoming).

In 2011, Grant presented a paper, “And Then Came Libya: The Chinese Perspective on the Use of Force,” at a College of Europe conference in Bruges, Belgium. Grant also presented a paper, “Why We Intervene: The Evolution of Use of Force Norms within the UN Security Council,” at the 2012 MPSA conference.

Grant lives with his wife and their two children in New York City, and often bikes to the UN to use their libraries.

Aki Nakai
E-mail: anakai@bu.edu

Aki Nakai received his BA in Political Science from Waseda University and his MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He entered the program in Fall 2008 and passed the PhD qualifying exams in April 2010. He is interested in International Relations, especially focusing on the international security issues and foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific. He is currently doing the research on the dissolution of security alliances, the Japanese foreign and security policy, and the U.S.-Japan-PRC trilateral relations. Nakai was recently accepted to the Asiatic Research Institute (ARI) Fellowship Program for Northeast Asian Studies at Korea University, where he plans to research the U.S.-ROK Alliance case in his dissertation.

Erzen Oncel
E-mail: erzeno@bu.edu

Erzen Oncel is a PhD candidate in the department of Political Science at Boston University. She received her BA degrees in History and International Relations & Political Science from Bogazici University, Istanbul. Her major field of study is Comparative Politics with a special interest in political elite, descriptive representation, and ethnic politics in the Middle East. She was a teaching fellow for PO 271, Introduction to International Relations, and for PO 241, Introduction to Public Policy. She taught “Politics of Race and Ethnicity” and “State and Society in the Middle East” courses at Boston University and University of Mississippi.

From September 2008 to May 2010, she was the head research assistant and project manager for NSF funded “Colonialism and Its Legacies: A Historical Dataset Project” (co-PIs James Mahoney and John Gerring). Since Fall 2009, she has been managing “The Global Leadership Project” project, funded by Clinton Global Initiative at Boston University. Meanwhile, she is working on her dissertation project which examines the political, structural, and cultural factors underpinning the descriptive representation of ethnic groups among political elites across polities around the world. As a case study, she studies change in ethnic (particularly Kurdish) representation in Turkey since 1920. She received Boston University Graduate Research Fellowship Award in 2011.

June Park
E-mail: junepark@bu.edu
Website: http://blogs.bu.edu/junepark

June Park is a Fulbright Fellow and PhD Candidate (ABD) in International Relations and International Political Economy. She obtained her B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from Korea University with a concentration in international security, and has worked for the United Nations Department of Political Affairs Security Council Sanctions Subsidiary Organs Branch and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific.

Her PhD dissertation is titled, ‘China, Japan, and Korea’s Encounter with the U.S. Trade Deficit Challenge, 1973-2013: Bilateral Trade Imbalances, Protectionism, and Currency Wars’.For her dissertation fieldwork in China and Japan, she started on-site field research as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo (2010-2011) and as a Visiting Scholar at the Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, Japan (2011). She continued her fieldwork as a Senior Visiting Research Student at the School of International Studies, Peking University, China (2011-2012) and also conducted additional fieldwork in the government agencies in Seoul, South Korea (2012). She is finishing her dissertation writing in the 2012-2013 academic year.

At BU, she was a Pardee Summer Graduate Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future for her preliminary dissertation research. She has taught ‘China: Revolution to Reform’ (IR370/PO369, Summer 2010) and was a teaching assistant for ‘Southeast Asia in World Politics’ (IR369, Spring 2009) and ‘Rise of China’ (IR365/PO374, Fall 2009). She has also held part-time lectureship at the Department of Government at Suffolk University for ‘Theory and Practice of International Relations’ (GVT261, Fall 2009). She entered the program in 2007.

Joseph Robinson
E-mail: trberger@bu.edu

Joe Robinson has a BA from the University of California – Santa Cruz in Politics and an MA from European University of St. Petersburg in Political Science and Russian Studies. He has taught courses in American Politics and is currently teaching WR100 as a Graduate Writing Fellow. His primary areas of scholarly interest are comparative peace studies, political and social psychology, conflict resolution, nationalism, and transitional justice. He is currently working on a dissertation proposal exploring post-conflict social and political life in Northern Ireland.

Leslie Sale
E-mail: salelm@bu.edu

Leslie Sale graduated magna cum laude from James Madison University in May 2009 with a BA in International Affairs.  In her senior year, Leslie was chosen to represent JMU at SCUSA, the Student Conference of US Affairs in West Point, NY. Before joining the PhD program at Boston University this fall, Leslie volunteered at a lion conservatory in Livingstone, Zambia. This trip also gave her the opportunity to spend time in other countries in Southern Africa, including Botswana and South Africa. Leslie’s research interests include comparative politics, and international relations with a regional focus in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Kristin Sippl
E-mail: ksippl@bu.edu

Kristin Sippl is a 4th year PhD student studying global environment and development politics. Her research focuses on North-South relations and sustainable livelihood transitions in developing countries. She recently published an article on mercury pollution in the artisanal gold mining sector, and is currently working on the role of product certification in addressing the sustainability challenges of supply chains. Participation in the UN Mercury Convention negotiations in Uruguay, a public health field experiment in Zambia, and the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future’s Summer Fellows Program all supported this work and link to her broader interests in human security, ethics, political ecology, and policy evaluation. Kristin graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Political Science, and regularly serves as a Teaching Fellow for IR271, Introduction to International Relations.

Brian Smith
E-mail: bsmth@bu.edu

Brian received his BA in English from Asbury College in 2000 and his MS in Ethics and Public Policy from Suffolk University in 2010. His master’s thesis explores the intersection of collective responsibility, sentimentality, and human rights. Brian also writes and has published on the political relevance of Aldous Huxley. He is a member of the Aldous Huxley Society. Prior to BU, Brian served as an Americorps volunteer in Frankfort, KY and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Izmail, Ukraine, where he taught English in a small pedagogical university. While at Suffolk, Brian was the research assistant to Gregory Fried and taught Phil 123, Intro to Ethics. His research interests include military ethics, collective responsibility, humanitarian intervention and transitional justice.

Ela Soyemi
E-mail: soyemi@bu.edu

Ela Soyemi received her MSc. in International Public Policy from University College London in 2006 and her BA from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom in 2005. She is interested in political thought particularly that of the Aristotelean, Platonic and Socratic tradition. She is, however focused in the comparative politics, with especial interest in the Nigerian state and society. Prior to becoming a Ph.D student, Ela worked at the British Houses of Parliament. She was based there in the press lobby as a parliamentary researcher and adminstrator for the Guardian Newspaper. Prior to that, between 2007 and 2008, she worked at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs). Ela has published articles in the Guardian and academic book reviews in International Affairs and African Affairs.

Joo-hee Suh
E-mail:joohee.suh@gmail.com

Joo-Hee Suh received her bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in international relations from Williams College in 2003 and her master’s degree in history of international relations from London School of Economics in 2005. Joo-Hee previously worked at the British Embassy Seoul as a political and media officer and most recently, at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland as a human rights officer. Her research interests include international relations, human rights, humanitarian intervention and transitional justice.

Dennis Sullivan
E-mail: djsully@bu.edu

Dennis received his M.A. (International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Security Studies) from Boston College in 2008 and his B.A. (Political Science and East Asian Studies) from University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1989. His research interests include terrorism and counter-terrorism, democratic peace theory, intelligence and security studies, supranational government and governance, hard power/soft power balance, and social network analysis. His career experiences include the US Navy, Department of Homeland Security, several defense contractors, and a political risk consultancy. A veteran of deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, Dennis conducted a number of research projects while deployed to support operations, such as “Social Network Analysis of Insurgent Group Dynamics in Eastern Afghanistan” and “Tribal Structure Dynamics in Anbar Province, Iraq.” He also contributed analysis products to senior decision makers through contributions to the President’s Daily Briefing and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Daily Briefing. His current dissertation project researches conflict deterrence and conflict management vectors in the post-WWII globalized environment.

Taiyi Sun
E-mail:suntaiyi@gmail.com

Taiyi Sun received his B.A from Ripon College, WI, double majored in Politics & Government and Business Administration with a minor in Leadership studies, and M.A. in International Affairs from American University, Washington, D.C. Taiyi’s research focuses on hydro-politics, international political economy, and Chinese politics. He is currently a teaching fellow for intro to comparative politics.

Taiyi previously worked as the executive assistant and office manager for the Center for Asian Studies, AU. He is also actively involved in organizing citizen policy discussions/forums and is a resident at the Interactivity Foundation. Taiyi currently writes a column for the largest youth magazine in China and is also playing the first violin with the Boston Civic Symphony.

Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu
E-mail: astekeli@bu.edu

Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu received his MA and BA in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University, in Ankara. Ahmet Selim has been a research assistant with the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), an Ankara based think-tank since 2005. His doctoral research focuses on post- structural International Relations Theory, Middle East politics and the role of ethnic/ religious identities in international politics. Ahmet Selim was a teaching fellow for PO 271, Introduction to International Relations in Fall 2008. He will be joining the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna as a junior visiting fellow during Spring 2010. He entered the program in 2007.

Aberra Tesfay
E-mail: atesfay@bu.edu

Aberra Tesfay received his MA in Political Science from Boston College in 2005, and MA in Theology and MDiv from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1998 and 1994. He also earned a Diploma in Philosophy from the Franciscan Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1988. Aberra entered the PhD program at Boston University in Fall 2008, and passed his qualifying examinations in April 2010. Having defended his dissertation proposal in November 2010, he is currently working on his dissertation that examines the impact of decentralization reforms on local government accountability in Ethiopia. Aberra has taught Introduction to Comparative Politics at Boston University during the 2011 Summer Session. Also, he has been teaching Introduction to Philosophy and World Religions at North Shore Community College since 2008 and African Politics at Boston College since 2011.

Alisa Thomas
E-mail: alisat@bu.edu

Alisa Thomas received her MPA in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Wyoming in 2001 and her BS in Political Science from the US Air Force Academy in 1992. She was a program security officer in the Advanced Technology Products for the Systems Program Office at Hanscom Air Force Base. Alisa passed her qualifying exams in May 2005. She entered the program in Fall 2002 and is interested in public policy.

Abram Trosky
E-mail: atrosky@bu.edu
Office: PLS 305

Recipient of Boston University’s highest academic scholarship, Abram has served as Presidential Teaching Fellow for most of the Department’s introductory courses and has taught courses in political theory and related subjects at BU, MIT, and Simmons College. Honored with the Department’s outstanding teaching award, he has also earned research fellowships at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria and the Consortium for Peace Studies in the Faculty for Social Work at the University of Calgary during this time.

Having passed comprehensive exams in political philosophy, political psychology, and international relations, Abram has since worked with the Group on International Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace, applying this interdisciplinary approach to contemporary social psychological peace research (SPPR). Aspects of his critical examination of SPPR analyses of just war and humanitarian intervention in public opinion have been presented in person and in print at annual professional conferences in political science and psychology, and appear in the title chapters of the International Handbook on War, Torture, and Terrorism, and Peace and Reconciliation. He recently authored the entry for “Human Rights” in the Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology and continues to be active in this and environmental causes in both a personal and professional capacity.

Dr. James C. Wallace
E-mail: jcw53@bu.edu
Website: lacunainternational.com

Jim Wallace is mid-career PhD candidate (ABD) with expertise in International Relations and Religion, Islamic Political Movements, and China. He previously earned a doctorate in theology from Samford University, as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees from Baylor University, Southwestern Seminary, and Boston University. Jim is working on his PhD dissertation entitled, “Blowback of the Gods: The U.S. Government’s Covert Use of Religion as a Tool of Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War Years and Its Consequences.”

Jim is currently a Lecturer in BU’s Department of International Relations teaching courses on “International Relations and Religion” and “Religion and American Foreign Policy.” As well, he is a Fellow and Senior Research Associate with BU’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs and a Fellow in the BU School of Theology’s Religion Fellows Program. Jim is co-author of a forthcoming book with Oxford University Press, has two forthcoming articles in the Journal of Cold War Studies, and a feature article in Commonweal.

Previously, Jim worked in Canada for over 25 years as a clergyman as well as a senior policy advisor and speechwriter for several senior Canadian politicians and government ministers. He is founder and CEO of a global consultancy dealing with international affairs, culture and religion – Lacuna Group International.

Alex Whalen
E-mail: awhalen@bu.edu
Office: PLS 209
Website: http://blog.alexwhalen.com

Alex Whalen received his BA in Government from the University of Virginia in 1993. After graduation he worked at a series of odd jobs – including pizza delivery – until he eventually landed a content development position at pre-Internet boom America Online. After building the service’s small business channel up from scratch, eventually turning it into into the WorkPlace Channel on the front page, he was laid off, a casualty of the Netscape acquisition. Determined never to set foot in a cubicle again, he moved on to pursue a career in the music industry. For the next five years, music website and retail shop owned by two Grammy Award winning producers, landed regular DJing gigs at some of North America’s biggest clubs, and launched several world tours in support of his music. Eventually, however, he decided to return to his first love – politics – and pursue a PhD in Political Science here at Boston University. Alex’s area of interest is American Politics, and he expects at some point in the not too far distant future to complete a dissertation examining how systemic media change has driven systemic political change throughout American political history.
Alex was a teaching fellow in PO 211, Introduction to American Politics, in Fall 2009 and in PO 300 in Spring 2010. Alex entered the program in Fall 2004.

Lenka Wieluns
E-mail: lwieluns@bu.edu

Lenka received her B.A. in History, Society and Culture from Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH in 2002. She completed her M.A. in Euroculture in 2005 at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Lenka held several positions as a researcher and an analyst in the U.S. and Europe, including working as a security advisor at the International Relations Department at the Slovak Ministry of Defense. She entered the PhD program in 2009 and passed her qualifying examinations in October 2010. Her research interests include issues of international security, identity politics and democracy with regional focus on the European Union and its immediate neighborhood. She is currently working on a dissertation proposal.

Gregory Winger
E-mail: ghwinger@bu.edu

Gregory Winger received his B.A. in political science and history from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and is presently pursuing a PhD.  Prior to attending BU, Greg worked in various think tanks and branches of the U.S. Government.   Presently his studies focus on International Security Studies particularly issues of grand strategy and great power politics.  In addition to his studies, Greg also serves as a teaching fellow and has assisted in the teaching of PO/IR 27, Introduction to International Relations, as well as PO/HI 366 US Foreign Policy since 1898.

Joshua Corie Yesnowitz
E-mail: jcyesnow@bu.edu
Office: PLS 312

Joshua Corie Yesnowitz holds an MA from Boston College and a BA from Skidmore College, where his honors thesis focused on Ralph Nader and third party politics in the United States. He teaches courses in American government including race in American political thought, media and politics, political parties, and social movement theory and practice. Joshua is currently writing his dissertation on contemporary student activism and youth political participation.

Yurim Yi
E-mail: yryi@bu.edu

Yurim Yi received her MA (Political Science, 2003) and BA (English Language & Literature/French Language & Literature, 2001) from Yonsei University, South Korea.  During her MA study, she received Brain Korea 21 scholarship from Korean government. She had finished her salaried internship for the North American Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea in 2005.  She had published three articles: “How to Negotiate with North Korea,” Asian Politics and Policy, Vol. 1, No. 4 (October/December 2009), “Security Dilemma & Signals Revolving Around the North Korean Nuclear Standoff”, with Yongho Kim, Asian Perspective, Vol.29, No.3 (Fall 2005) and “Offense-Defense Balance & Perception: On the Case of North Korean Nuclear Crises,” Korean Political Science Review, Vol. 38, No.1 (Spring 2004). She translated Getting to Yes in Korea written by Walter Clemens Jr. from English to Korean (Hanul Publisher: Seoul, 2011). She passed her comprehensive exams on April 2009 and now is working on her research. She defended her prospectus about threat perception and confrontation in the fall of 2011 and is working for her research. She was also an instructor of
PO/IR 271 Introduction to IR during summer 2012.

Moeed Yusuf
E-mail: moeed@bu.edu

Moeed W. Yusuf is the South Asia Adviser at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington D.C. C and is responsible for managing the Institute’s Pakistan program.

Before joining USIP, Yusuf was a fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, and concurrently a research fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at Harvard Kennedy School. He has also been affiliated with the Brookings Institution as a special guest. In 2007, he co-founded Strategic and Economic Policy Research, a private sector consultancy firm in Pakistan. Yusuf has also consulted for a number of Pakistani and international organizations. From 2004-2007, he was a full-time consultant with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan’s premier development-sector think tank. He has also consulted for the United States Institute of Peace, the Brookings Institution, UNESCO, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Innovative Development Strategies, Sungi Development Foundation and Pugwash International.

Yusuf taught in Boston University’s Political Science and International Relations Departments as a senior teaching fellow in 2009. He had previously taught at the defense and strategic studies department at Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan. He also lectured at the Pakistan Military Staff College and was a guest lecturer at NATO’s Center of Excellence-Defense Against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey. His area of expertise is South Asian strategic and political economy concerns. He has been closely linked with Pakistani policy making and his advice is regularly solicited by Pakistan’s decision making enclave. He writes regularly in the Pakistani press and appears on the media to comment on Pakistan-US relations.

Oya Yegen
E-mail: oyayegen@bu.edu

Oya Yegen received her BA in Social and Political Science from Sabanci University, Turkey. She entered the program in 2007 and passed her comprehensive exams in 2010. Her research interests include Latin American politics, civil-military relations, Turkish politics and human rights. Currently she is teaching at Simmons College and working on her dissertation.

Dominic Zarecki
E-mail: dominicz@bu.edu
Office: PLS 404A

Dominic received his B.A. in Ethics, Politics and Economics from Yale, where he assisted with the bi-weekly Religion and Politics Colloquium.  His interests are comparative politics and political methodology, with a focus on Latin American party systems.  He entered the program as a Presidential Fellow in 2009 and has been a teaching fellow for the comparative politics and international relations introductory courses.

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