Doctoral Candidates & Research

Doctoral Candidates & Research

Learn more about our PhD Candidates, including those who are actively searching for new opportunities on the job market.

All of these students have defended a dissertation proposal and advanced to candidacy. Many of our PhD candidates have published in leading journals, presented papers at conferences, and secured fellowships and awards. Feel free to contact the students, their advisors, or the Schar School for additional information.

Biodefense PhD Candidates

Biodefense PhD Candidates

HyunJung Kim

Dissertation: Use of Unapproved Medical Countermeasures in Public Health Emergency Between the United States and South Korea
Chair: Greg Koblentz

Elise Rowe

Dissertation: The Public Health Ramifications of the US and International Rise of Health Securitization
Chair: Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley

Political Science PhD Candidates

Job Market Candidates

Aaron Stuvland 

Website | LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: Talking Like a Populist: Assessing the Impact of Populist Rhetoric on Mainstream Parties in Western Democracies 
Chair: Mariely Lopez-Santana

Dersu Ekim Tanca 

Website | LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: From 'Hybrid' towards 'Full' Authoritarianism? Regime Transitions in Turkey after 2011.
Chair: Eric McGlinchey

Political Science PhD Candidates

Melissa Bejjani

Dissertation: Thriving War Economies: Implications of Prolonging the Conflict, The Case of Syria
Chair: Bassam Haddad

Piper Biery

LinkedIn
Dissertation: Reconceptualizing the Non-State Challenge to Westphalian Sovereignty: The Sovereign Citizens Movement and Individual Sovereignty
Chair: Char Miller

Scott Blesdoe

Dissertation: Belief or Belonging? Untangling Evangelical Religiosity and its Impact on Behavioral Polarization
Chair: Jeremy Mayer

Jordan Cohen 

Website | LinkedIn
Dissertation: Arms Sales and Influence: Explaining Congressional Arms Sales Legislation
Chair: A. Trevor Thrall

Brian Davis 

Dissertation: Patron-Client Relations and Democratization in Asia: US Influence on Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines
Chair: Ming Wan

Matthew Fay 

Website
Dissertation: Military Service Systems and Battlefied Effectiveness
Chair: A. Trevor Thrall

Kyle Fowler

Dissertation: National Champions: Russian Energy Exports as an Instrument of State Power
Chair: Eric McGlinchey

Courtney Kayser

Dissertation: The Enemy of My Enemy: Rebel Group Strategies at the Onset of Civil Wars
Chair: Ahsan Butt

Keith Luter

Dissertation: The Arms Trade and Democratization: Explaining Variation in Outcomes
Chair: Eric McGlinchey

Doug Penhallegon

Dissertation: Self-Efficacy, Theories of Poverty, and Critical Pedagogy  in the (Re)Design of Job Readiness Training for TANF Recipients
Chair: Mariely Lopez-Santana

Erica Seng-White

Dissertation: Why variations exist between states in their level of nationalism in response to rising regional powers.
Chair: Ming Wan

Lauren Sidrow

Dissertation: Chinese Aid and Soft Power: Examining Recipient State Views of China Over Time
Chair: Peter Mandaville

Jason Smith

LinkedIn
Dissertation: Delegate or Abdicate: How Public Interest Influences Congressional and Executive Interactions
Chair: Jennifer Victor

Yang Yang 

LinkedIn
Dissertation: Examining Variation in States' Tax Expenditure Budgets
Chair: Robert McGrath

Public Policy PhD Candidates

Job Market Candidates

Damon Dade

LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: Ethical and Regulatory Frameworks for the Support of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Chair: Laurie Schintler

Katrina Dunlap 

LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: Linking Public Trust in Government with Federal Disaster Relief Aid: A Case Study of Hurricane-Prone Gulf Coast Residents
Chair: Laurie Schintler

Aubrey Grant

Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: Networks and Policy Outcomes: The Case of Refugee Integration
Chair: Jennifer Victor

George Hutchinson 

LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: Wedged Between Fear and Ambition: The Kim Dynasty's Nuclear Quest for Total Sovereignty
Chair: Ed Rhodes

Rich Outzen

LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: Turning the Stripped Screw: Thirty Years of U.S. Coercive Diplomacy
Chair: Peter Mandaville

Abu Bakkar Siddique   

Website
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: People’s Context, Corruption as Experience and Culture, and Tax Morale
Chair: Naoru Koizumi

Hong Zhang  

LinkedIn
Job Market Candidate
Dissertation: China's international development: domestic mechanisms and contextualized impacts
Chair: Jack Goldstone

 

Public Policy PhD Candidates

Addilyn Chams-Eddine 

Dissertation: A Consideration of Foreign Direct Investment, Total Factor Productivity, and Financial Sector FDI
Chair: Ken Button

Yi-Ting Chiu

LinkedIn
Dissertation: What creates a Village? -- the Socio-economic Factors Supporting “the Village Movement.”
Chair: Jack Goldstone

Malia Dalesandry 

LinkedIn
Dissertation: Persistent Illegality as a Protracted Crisis: Marginalization and Rational Choice within the Sex Work Community
Chair: Laurie Schintler

Aaron Finney

Dissertation: Understanding the Digital Divide in U.S. Public Schools: An Case of Federal Technology Subsidies and Access in Virginia
Chair: Connie McNeely

Allison Grayson 

Dissertation: Communicating the Nonprofit Sector to the Federal Policy Arena
Chair: Alan Abramson

Anna Hartman 

LinkedIn
Dissertation: Out of the Shadows? Intelligence Sharing in the European Union
Chair: Desmond Dinan

Maurice Johnson 

Dissertation: Improving Health Outcomes by Addressing Social Determinants: Evidence from Medicaid’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program
Chair: Siona Listokin

Muhammad Salar Khan 

Dissertation: Absorptive Capacity and Economic Growth: How Does Absorptive Capacity Affect Economic Growth?
Co-Chairs: Jim Olds & David Hart

Lauren N. McCarthy  

Website | LinkedIn
Dissertation: Hacking the Bureaucracy: Micro-mobility and the policy process - policy-making in the age of the smart city
Chair: Jonathan Gifford

Neslihan McCorkel

Dissertation: Refugees and their Labor Market Integration: Three Essays on Factors Influencing Employment Outcomes in the Global South
Chair: Kenneth Reinert

Michael McCormick 

Dissertation: The Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Hub Airport Abandonment
Chair: Jonathan Gifford

Daniel L. Ofori-Addo 

LinkedIn
Dissertation: An Empirical Assessment of Sub-Saharan African Mobile Phone Diffusion, Economic Growth, Per Capita Incomes, Poverty and Inequality
Chair: Kenneth Reinert

Emma Parker

Dissertation: The Increasing Securitization of US Foreign Assistance
Chair: Jim Pfiffner

Andrew Paterson

Dissertation: The Political Economy of Nuclear Energy: A Risk-based Framework for Policy Implementation
Chair: David Hart

Geoffrey Scott 

Dissertation: Determinates of Success: Institutional Design in Community-Based Natural Resource Management for Wildlife Conservation
Chair: Louise Shelley

Benjamin Shearn 

Dissertation: Identity Framing: How Indian Policymaker Identity Affects Threat Perception
Chair: Ed Rhodes

Jennifer Smith-Heys 

Dissertation: A Roadmap to Reform: Building a Theory of Intelligence Commissions
Chair: Jim Pfiffner

Sasithorn Supakienmongkol 

Dissertation: Mismatch Among Thai STEM Certificate Holders: Determinants and Consequences
Chair: David Hart