research
My research specializations are border contexts, ethnic conflict, and identity transmission in and after experiencing communism.
The basic argument driving my research plan is that the unique features of "non-WEIRD" countries and contexts (i.e., those that are not Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) are a strength rather than a weakness for our knowledge gaps in social science; they help us to understand the on-the-ground mechanisms and local dynamics of processes which are often poorly documented despite their global significance, e.g., migration, integration, conflict, and identity politicization.
The methods used for my research include data curation from historical archives, ethnography, and interviews; focus groups for survey design, survey experiments; and causal inference techniques, e.g., matching and regression discontinuity, among others.
Peer-reviewed Publications
“Did Border Closures slow SARS-CoV-2?,” Lead Author w/ the COBAP Team, Scientific Reports, Nature Portfolio, 12(1709), 2022
“COVID Border Accountability Project, a hand-coded global database of border closures introduced in 2020,” Lead Author w/ COBAP, Scientific Data, Nature Portfolio, 8(253), 2021
Data Contributions
"The COVID Border Accountability Project (COBAP): Mapping Travel and Immigration Policy Responses to COVID-19", Harvard Dataverse, Versions 1-40
“COBAP Website: An Archive of Covid-related Border Restrictions for the General Public,” 2020-2021
Solicited Publications
“What Good is a Liberal Arts Education?: Tocqueville’s Education as a Public Good,” Agora, 2014
“From Fighting to Electing Nazis: Explaining the Rise of Golden Dawn in Greece,” Cornell International Affairs Review, 7, 1: 47-53, 2013
In-progress
“How Multiethnic Identity Engineering Backfired in Communist Albania, Eventually,” Job Market Paper, Available upon Request
“The Link between Communist-era Memories and Long-term Voting Outcomes,” Article Manuscript, “The Anti-Immigrant Motivations for Pandemic Border Closures,” Article Manuscript, Resulted available as an APSA iPoster.
Web Publications contributing to Policy Debates, selection
“Europe’s Border Responses to COVID-19 in Global Context,” Europe In the World, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, 2021
“Closed borders, travel bans and halted immigration: 5 ways COVID-19 changed how and where people move around the world,” The Conversation, 2021 (re-published in more than 40 news outlets)
“Will COVID-19 Harden the World’s Borders?,” with Fei & Wolff, Stanford University’s Immigration Policy Lab (IPL) Website, 2020
Research Presentations (*Invited)
"How Communist Memories Shape Post-Communist Beliefs about Identity" Contemporary Politics in the Western Balkans, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden (Forthcoming) 2025
“Greek Identity Politics in Communist Albania: State v. Family,” Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, 2024* (Video here).
“The Legacy of Communist-era Ethnic Identity Politics on Contemporary Integration Challenges in the EU,” Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, MZES University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany, 2024*
“Playing the Long Game with the State: How Identity Engineering Backfired in Communist Albania, Eventually,” Fulbright Mediterranean Research Seminar, Alicante, Spain, 2023*
“Measuring Identity in Authoritarian Contexts,” International Society of Political Psychology Academy, Montreal, Canada, 2023
“Unintended Consequences: The Authoritarian Legacy of Multiethnic Regime Engineering in Albania,” European Political Science Association, Glasgow, Scotland, 2023
“Nation-building through Minority Identity Engineering in Albania,” Collegio Carlo Al- berto, Turin, Italy, 2022*
“The Effects of Communist-era Protections for Minority Groups on Ethnopolitical Identity Compliance,” Kellogg Institute for International Studies, 2022
“The Impacts of Minority Identity Engineering on Ethnopolitical Identity Transmission,” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Chicago, 2022
“Hoxha’s Grand Experiment on Minority Identity in Albania,” American Political Science Association (APSA), Montreal, Canada, 2022
“The COVID Border Accountability Project: Xenophobic Motivations of International Border Closures introduced in 2020-21,” APSA, Montreal, Canada, 2022
“Hoxha’s Grand Experiment with Minority Identity in Albania: the Impacts of Multiethnic Identity Engineering on Political Identity Transmission in Authoritarian Regimes,” International Society of Political Psychology, Athens, Greece, 2022
“The Impact of Communist-era Multiethnic Identity Engineering on Post-communist Political Identity Transmission: A Natural Experiment at the Albania-Greece Border,” European Political Science Association, Prague, Czechia, 2022
“Hoxha’s Grand Experiment on Minority Identity in Albania: the Impacts of Multiethnic Identity,” Comparative Politics Workshop, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, 2022
“Hoxha’s Grand Experiment on Minority Identity in Albania: the Impacts of Multiethnic Identity Engineering on Ethnopolitical Identity Transmission in Authoritarian Regimes,” Midwest Political Science Association, 2022
“National citizenship by Birth (jus soli) v. by Blood (jus sanguinis) in Soviet Context,” Political Theory Workshop, Stanford University, 2021
“Ideal Theory in Everyday Politics,” Western Political Science Association, virtual, 2021
“The COVID Border Accountability Project (COBAP): The Global Health Impacts of Travel Bans,” Kellogg Institute for International Studies, 2020
“Habermas’ Communicative Freedom v. the ‘Schmittiness’ of Trump-era politics: A Case for Iden- tifying Ideal Theory in Everyday Politics,” Stanford University, Political Theory Workshop for in- progress work, McCoy Center for Ethics and Society, 2020
“Modeling Internal versus International Migration restrictions in Albania,” Immigration Policy Lab, Stanford University, 2020
“Measuring ‘Greek’ identity in Albania,” Immigration Policy Lab, Stanford University, 2020
“‘The Albanian People want to be Sincere Friends with the Greek People Forever’: A Natural Experiment Idea from Hoxha’s Policy on Greek Identity in Albania,” Comparative Politics Visiting Researchers’ Panel, Stanford University, Department of Political Science, 2019
“Interactions between Greek and Albanian Identities in America,” Political Violence Seminar convened by Stathis Kalyvas, Olympia Summer Academy, Greece, 2019
“Anti-intellectualism in Democracy: Insights from Tocqueville and Arendt,” Annual Conference in International Political Theory, University of St Andrews, 2014