Welcome/Välkommen

This is my academic website, where you can find information on my current research and the classes that I teach. I am a docent in international relations with the Department of Economic History and Internal Relations at Stockholm University and a BITSS Catalyst with the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences. I was previously an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Clemson University.

I use statistics and machine learning to understand why people adopt authoritarian political beliefs or embrace autocratic leaders in response to real or perceived threats. This puts my research and teaching interests at the broad intersection of international conflict and political behavior. My research outputs have appeared in peer-reviewed journals like Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Political Behavior, and Political Research Quarterly, to name a few. More recent research is funded by the National Science Foundation and has even been highlighted in newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi gestures during a rally in Tehran on June 15, 2009 (AFP/Getty Images).