Graduate Student Placement History
Graduates from UC Irvine’s Department of Political Science doctoral program have proceeded
to work at research universities, liberal arts colleges, and non-academic careers
in government, nongovernmental organizations, and private industry. Below is a complete
list of our Ph.D. graduates and their placements since the 2007-08 academic year.
| Name | Dissertation | Placement | Degree Awarded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samantha Canty | UC Los Angeles | President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program | 2025 | ||
| Benjamin Brisson | Duke University | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2025 | ||
| Uras Demir | Loyola Marymount University | Visiting Assistant Professor | 2025 | ||
| Alisson Rowland | Fort Hays State University | Assistant Professor | 2025 | ||
| Sarah Burke | The Reproductive Rights Effect: How Reproductive Policy Affects Women’s Political Representation and Militarization | Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights | 2025 | |
| Kristen Aanstoos | Local Voices at the Table: How Participation in Peace Processes Shapes Women's Political Empowerment | University of Southern California | Assistant Professor | 2024 | |
| Ugurcan Evci | Elections in Turkey: Three Chapters Analyzing Electoral Manipulation | Hillsborough Community College | 2024 | |
| Wondong Lee | The Discursive Politics of Transnational anti-LGBTQ+ Activism in South Korea | Center for International Studies at Inha University | Research Fellow | 2024 | |
| Benjamin Hoyt | Scepticism Without Reductionism: A Reimagination of the Political Thought of Bernard Williams | Mercer University | Assistant Professor | 2023 | |
| Benjamin Raynor | The Political Economy of Post-Sanction Reinvestment: Why Firms Dive in or Defer After Financial Sanctions | Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) | Senior Country Risk Analyst - The Americas | 2023 | |
| Kyle McWagner | The Existence and Impact of Partisan Political Intolerance | University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee | Visiting Assistant Professor | 2023 | |
| Prince Paa-Kwesi Heto | Regional Peace and Conflict: The Role of Global Value Chains | Soka University of America, Graduate School | 2023 | |
| Robin Brooks Ishler | The Case for a New English School: A New Response To The Fourth Debate | Touro University | Assistant Professor of Political Science | 2023 | |
| Chaz Briscoe | Exhibiting a Black Ecology of Environmental Degradation: Anti-Blackness Coalescing Around Multiple Sites of Power | Virginia Tech | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2022 | |
| Nathan Chan | Youth Consciousness and Intergenerational Solidarity in American Political Behavior | Loyola Marymount University | Assistant Professor | 2022 | |
| Isabel Gonzales | And If the World Should End Tonight...: Racial Capitalism, Sexual Mythmaking, and Tumblr’s Queer-of-Color Worlds of Resistance | University of Virginia | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2022 | |
| Misbah Hyder | Empowerment through Submission: Conceptualizing Ahmadiyya Muslim Agency as Sabr | Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Notre Dame | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2022 | |
| Paul Love | Emergent strategic culture: Post-Cold War Europe navigating great power relations with the U.S., Russia, and China | New York University - Abu Dhabi | 2022 | |
| Phoebe Moon | When the Target Fights Back:Economic Coercion and Interstate Conflict in the Era of Global Value Chains | Mercer University | Assistant Professor | 2022 | |
| Bianca Rubalcava | Naming Racism, Confronting Anti-Blackness: Transnational Mexican American Racialization and Coalition Building | University of Pacific | Assistant Profoessor | 2022 | |
| Pooya Safarzadeh | Legalizing Foreignness: The Supreme Court’s Adoption of Racial Stereotypes in its Wartime Civil Liberties Cases | Cal State University East Bay | Assistant Professor | 2022 | |
| Shauna Gillooly | Incomplete Peace and Strategies of Resilience in Columbia | American Council on Learned Societies & The Carnegie Foundation | Leading Edge Postdoctoral Fellow | 2021 | |
| James Nguyen | Cosmopolitan Intergenerational Justice and Climate Change | Canadian Federal Government, Ottawa | Policy Analyst at Natural Resources | 2021 | |
| Elham Kazemi | "Narratives of 'Terror' and Transitional Justice: The Politics of Exclusion" | Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) | Senior Research Associate | 2021 | |
| Chungjae Lee | Inventing "The People": The Discourse of Democratic Transformation in Early 20th Century Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea | Bucknell University | Assistant Professor | 2021 | |
| Lev Nachman | Movement Parties in Contested States: The Case of Taiwan's Post-Sunflower Movement Parties | National Taiwan University | Assistant Professor | 2021 | |
| Daeun Song | The Asian American Division over Affirmative Action: Examining the Case of SCA5 and the Rise of Chinese American Conservatism | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, South Korea | Senior Analyst | 2020 | |
| Brett Savage | California Special Districts – Accountability, Composition, and Trends | Cal Poly San Luis Obispo | Lecturer | 2020 | |
| Stacey Liou | Political Intelligibility and the Performative Force of Assembly | University of Florida | Assistant Professor | 2020 | |
| Jonathan Cervas | A Quantitative Assessment of the Electoral College, 1790-2020 | Carnegie Mellon University, Institute for Politics and Strategy | Post doctoral Fellow | 2020 | |
| Christopher Stoughton | The Tragedy of Climate Change | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | Lecturer | 2020 | |
| Hallee Caron | Persuasion without Protection: Readmission Agreements, Informal Arrangesments, and the International Refugee Regime | California State Auditor Office | Auditor Evaluator | 2020 | |
| Mary Anne Mendoza | Educated into Violence: The Colonial Origins of Separatist Rebellion | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | Assistant Professor | 2020 | |
| Maneesh Arora | Which Race Card? Understanding Racial Appeals in U.S. Politics | Wellesley College | Assistant Professor | 2019 | |
| Archie Delshad | Politicization and Racialization: Iranian American Political Participation and Identity Formation | Fullerton College | Associate Professor | 2019 | |
| John Emery | War by Algorithm: Giambattista Vico and Ethics of War in the Technological Era | University of Oklahoma | Assistant Professor of International Security | 2019 | |
| Jovan Milojevich | Yugoslavia Revisited: An Examination of the Immediate Effects and Long-Term Implications of Western (Foreign) Policies During and After the Yugoslav Crisis | Oklahoma State University | Visiting Assistant Professor | 2019 | |
| Alexandra Raleigh | Transitional Justice as a Complex System: The Dynamics of Holistic Justice in South Africa | Case Western Reserve University School of Law | Law Student | 2019 | |
| Alex Lee | Nuclear Debates and Political Competition in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: Denuclearization or Nuclear Latency in the aftermath of Fukushima | National Geospatial Agency, Department of Defense | 2019 | |
| Hannah Kim | Middle Class and Democratic Citizenship in East Asia | University of Nebraska Omaha | Assistant Professor | 2019 | |
| Dirk Horn | Two Paths: A Comparative Analysis of the Narco-economics and Drug Control Policies in Latin America--The Case of Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, and Uruguay | California State University, Bakersfield | Visiting Assistant Professor | 2018 | |
| Pernilla Johansson | External Actors in International Peacebuilding |
Sida | Head of Sida Partnership Forum |
2018 | |
| Marcos Scauso | Indianismo: Debating Conditions of Possibility for Multi-relational Coexistence | Quinnipiac University | Assistant Professor | 2018 | |
| Trevor Allen | The Far Right and the Left Behind: The Demographic Deepening and Surprising Durability of Far Right Parties in Western Europe, 2009-2014 | Central Connecticut State University | Associate Professor | 2017 | |
| Carrie Reiling | Advocating for Themselves: Seeking Security Through Women's Peacebuilding Organizations in Cote D'Ivoire | Washington College | Assistant Professor | 2017 | |
| Misty Knight-Finley | Rights, Regimes, and Reinvention: The Role of the Welfare State in Same-Sex Relationship Recognition Policy | Rowan University | Assistant Professor | 2017 | |
| Hannah Alarian | Migrant Employment and the Foundations of Integration: A Multimethod Approach | University of Florida | Assistant Professor | 2017 | |
| Peter Beattie | Crooked Timber and the Broken Branch: The Invisible Hand in the Marketplace of Ideas | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | Assistant Professor | 2017 | |
| Katelyn Finley | Inequality Across Transition Counties: The Demand for and Supply of Income Redistribution | University of California, Irvine | Lecturer | 2017 | |
| Jennifer Jones | Talk "Like a Man:" Feminine Style in the Pursuit of Political Power | Loyola Marymount University | Visiting Assistant Professor | 2017 | |
| Sahar Khan | Legitimizing State-sponsored Militants: The Role of Civil Institutions in Pakistan | Cato Institute, Washington, DC | Post-Doc | 2017 | |
| Joshua Malnight | Economic Coercion and the Logics of Global Business | Signet Jewelers | Citizen Data Scientist | 2017 | |
| Kelsey Norman | Reluctant Reception: Understanding Host State Migration and Refugee Policies in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey | Rice University, Baker Institute for Public Policy | Director, Women's Rights, Human Rights and Refugees Program & Fellow for the Middle East | 2017 | |
| Graham Odell | From the Ashes Shall Rise: Determinants of State Reconstitution in Republican China and Sengoku Japan | Pomona College | Lecturer | 2017 | |
| James Alexander Keena | The Electoral Consequences of Size in American Politics | Virginia Commonwealth University | Assistant Professor | 2016 | |
| Kenneth Chaiprasert | The Political Incorporation of Children of Refugees: The Experience of Central Americans and Southeast Asians in the U.S. | East Los Angeles College | Assistant Professor | 2016 | |
| Heather Cox | Essays of Foreign Direct Investment, Financial Development, and Economic Institutions | U.S. International Trade Commission | International Economist | 2016 | |
| John Cuffe | Marginals, Mavericks, and Majorities: Elements of Legislative Behavior, Politics, and Elections | U.S. Census Bureau | Statistician | 2016 | |
| Jennifer Garcia | From Protest to Policymaking: African American Legislative Behavior in the Post-War Era | Oberlin College | Assistant Professor | 2016 | |
| Lev Marder | Economies of Ignorance: Genealogical Study of Political Ignorance in Late Modernity | Queen's University | SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow | 2016 | |
| Robert Nyenhuis | The Prevalence of Populism in Latin America: Contenders, Citizens, and Campaigns | California Polytechnic University, Pomona | Assistant Professor | 2016 | |
| Tanya Schwarz | Instruments of the Divine? Faith-Based Organizations in International Politics | American Political Science Association, Director | 2016 | |
| Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi | Speaking Law to War: International Law, Legal Advisers, and Bureaucratic Contestation in U.S. Defense Policy | University of South Florida | Assistant Professor | 2015 | |
| Johanna Solomon | Identity Change in Jewish-Muslim Inter-Group Contact: A Longitudinal Study of Two Inter-Group Dialogue Programs | Kent State University | Assistant Professor | 2015 | |
| John Altick | Radical Democracy: A Principled Disruption | The Citadel | Visiting Assistant Professor | 2015 | |
| Mark Berlin | Implementing International Law: The Criminalization of Atrocities in Domestic Legal Systems Since World War II | Marquette University | Associate Professor | 2015 | |
| Alfredo Carlos | Economic Democracy: From Continual Crisis to a People Oriented Economy | California State University, Long Beach | Lecturer | 2015 | |
| Leah Hemze | Antinomy as Critique: Popular Sovereignty as Practice and Theory | Anthem Inc. | Metrics Executive Advisor | 2015 | |
| Tom Le | Where Power Projection Ends: Constraints and Restraints on Japanese Militarism | Pomona College | Associate Professor | 2015 | |
| Bryan Nelle | Finding the Political: The Ethical Consumer and Neoliberalism | Chadwick International School, Songdo, South Korea | 2015 | |
| Sierra Powell | The Political Potential of Americans with Disabilities: A Study of Political Engagement and Preferences | Mt. San Antonio College Professor | Associate Professor | 2015 | |
| Jason Vick | A Twenty-First Century Defense of Participatory Democracy | Freelance Writer & Independent Scholar | 2015 | |
| Josh Gellers | Global Norms and Green Constitutions: Explaining the Emergence of Constitutional Environmental Rights | University of North Florida | Associate Professor | 2014 | |
| Beijie (Ann) Tang | Internationalization's Discontents: Domestic Coalition and the Fate of China's Peaceful Rise | Deputy Secretary General, Center for China and Globalization (Beijing, China) | 2014 | |
| Kris Coulter | The Personal is Juridical: Explaining the Variation in the Legal Treatment of Women and Men in the United States Supreme Court | University of Wisconsin, Green Bay | Assistant Professor | 2014 | |
| Heidi Haddad | Advocates, Institution Builders, and Gatekeepers: NGOs and International Human Rights Justice | Pomona College | Associate Professor of Politics | 2014 | |
| Ryan Shirah | Institutional Legacy and the Stability of New Democracies: The Lasting Effects of Competitive Authoritarianism | University of Tennessee | Institutional Research Analyst | 2014 | |
| Bron Tamulis | Louis Althusser, Leo Strauss, and the Theoretical Turn in Political Leadership | Charter Oak State College | Teaching Faculty | 2014 | |
| Wilfred Wan | Institutional Change and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime | Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Director of Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme | 2014 | |
| Amy Grubb | The microdynamics of violence and order : variations in community security processes | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University | Associate Professor | 2014 | |
| Neil Chaturvedi | Hiding and Hedging: Surviving the Ideological Center in the United States Senate | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | Associate Professor | 2013 | |
| Nathan Jones | The State Reaction: A Theory of Illicit Network Resilience | Sam Houston State University | Associate Professor | 2013 | |
| Victoria Wilson | Deconstructing race and gender in the 2008 presidential election | Asian Pacific American Legal Center | Research Analyst | 2013 | |
| Andrea Vandom | The effect of wages on extortion | House 47 | Managing Partner | 2013 | |
| Danvy Le | Under pressure? : effects of social pressure on political participation in a vietnamese community in California | Cal State University East Bay | Assistant Professor | 2013 | |
| Colin Moore | Foreign policy and the six-party talks: the effects of regime type and state vulnerability | Sacramento City College Adjunct Professor | 2012 | |
| Karl Kruse | Markets in regulation: the regulators, incentives, and pathways for change | Management Consultant | 2012 | |
| Adam Martin | Forgiveness in an age of terror: the political psychology of forgiving the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks | Graceland University, Iowa | Assistant Professor | 2012 | |
| Kathryn Cooper | Discrimination and participation : the effect of perceived gender discrimination on women's political activity | Federal Government | 2012 | |
| Amy Alexander | The gender gap in parliamentarians' pathways, roles, styles and policy attitudes: comparisons across parties and nations in Western Europe | Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden | 2011 | |
| Madeline Baer | Privatizing water: globalization, states and human rights | Occidental College | Associate Professor, Diplomacy & World Affairs | 2011 | |
| Alix Van Sickle | Beyond electoral democracy: civil society and the construction of democratic citizenship in Latin America | Point Loma Nazarine University, Adjunct Professor | 2011 | |
| Nathan Jones | The state reaction: a theory of illicit network resilience | Sam Houston State University, Associate Professor of Security Studies | 2011 | |
| Denise Robb | The effect of instant runoff voting on democracy [electronic resource] | Pierce College (CA), Assistant Professor | 2011 | |
| Bridget Portman | Death anxiety and political ideology: a multimethod investigation | Santa Clara University, Adjunct Professor | 2011 | |
| Zahra Ahmed | Service learning in policy and practice: a study of service learning across three universities | UC Irvine, Director, Civic & Community Engagement | 2010 | |
| Thomas Doyle | Moral dilemmas: acquiring nuclear weapons in the second nuclear age | Associate Professor, Political Science, Texas State University, San Marcos | 2010 | |
| Kathy Rim | In solidarity? the influence of racial group consciousness on Asian American political behavior | Wesleyan University, Assistant Professor | 2010 | |
| Christopher Stout | Black empowerment in the Age of Obama | Wellesley College, Assistant Professor | 2010 | |
| Armando Ibarra Salazar | Poverty in the valley of plenty: Mexican families and migrant work in California | University of Wisconsin, School for Workers, Assistant Professor | 2010 | |
| Willy Jou | Left-right orientations in new democracies [electronic resource]: cognition, contents, consequences | Waseda University, Japan, Postdoc | 2010 | |
| Reuben Kline | Essays in political economy | SUNY, Stonybrook, Associate Professor | 2010 | |
| Christopher Balding | The political economics of international trade: the impact of institutions, governance quality, and public spending | HSBC School of Business, Beijing University, Assistant Professor | 2009 | |
| Robin Bowman | Uncovering the conditions of terrorism by armed Muslim separatist groups in the Philippines through the variable interaction analysis | Defense Department | 2009 | |
| John Ensch | Electoral systems and regional cooperation: politics and economics in Metropolitan Planning Organizations | Private Industry, Germany | 2009 | |
| P. Brian Fisher | Reframing global climate change: achieving human security for vulnerable communities | College of Charleston, Assistant Professor | 2009 | |
| Bruce Hemmer | The democratization of peacebuilding: the political engagement of peacebuilding NGOs in democratizing societies | U.S. Department of State | 2009 | |
| Nhu-Ngoc Ong | Governing music in Vietnam: from socialist to post-socialist use of nationalism | Publisher and Editor in Chief, Viet Tide Magazine, Garden Grove CA | 2009 | |
| Saba Ozyurt | Integrating Muslim immigrant women in the United States and the Netherlands: effects of religiosity and migrant religious institutions | Alliant International University, Associate Professor | 2009 | |
| Becki Scola | Are all states created equal: the supply and demand of women state legislators | St. Joseph's University (PA), Associate Professor | 2009 | |
| Daniel Wehrenfennig | The missing link: citizen dialogue in Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine | Executive Director, The Olive Tree Initiative, UC Irvine | 2009 | |
| Molly Patterson | The dynamics of deliberation: power and structuration in democratic communication | Associate Professor, Aquinas College | 2008 | |
| Ballestero Lee | Citizen support in democracies: the effects of media exposure and content on attitudes toward democracy | Moorpark College Professor | 2008 | |
| Joe Bergeron | Social movement promotion of public policy during challenging times | University of Wisconsin-Parkside Assistant Professor | 2008 | |
| Titus Chen | Capped socialization: how have international norms changed China, 1860-2007 | National Chenchi University, Taipei, Assistant Research Fellow | 2008 | |
| Natalie Masuoka | Rethinking race and politics: mixed race and the trajectory of minority politics in the United States | University of California Los Angeles, Associate Professor | 2008 | |
| Stephen Nuño | Messenger politics: the influence of co-ethnic partisan recruitment on Latino vote choice | Northern Arizona University Assistant Professor | 2008 | |
| Michael Latner | Metropolitan fragmentation and electoral mobilization: a study of the impact of residential settlement patterns on voter turnout in the United States | Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Assistant Professor | 2008 | |
| Bogdan Radu | Traditional believers and democratic citizens: a contextualized analysis of the effects of religion on support for democracy in East Central Europe | Babes-Bolyai University, Bucharest, Assistant Professor | 2008 | |
| Brenda Seaver | Political instability, dual transitions, and militarized interstate conflict in the post-Cold War era | Central Intelligence Agency, Senior Political Analyst | 2000 |
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