
Effective Fall 2024: Applications for the CRS program will no longer be accepted, as the curriculum is integrated into a听reimagined degree beginning in Fall 2025. These changes will not affect听current听students听who will complete the program as expected.
Department Chair

Research interests
- Comparative democratization
- Authoritarianism in Africa
- Politics of constitution-making
Department Director of Graduate Studies
Jennifer Poole Associate Professor SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Global integration on local labor markets
- Information transfer in trade听
- Labor institutions
Core Faculty

Sumitra Badrinathan Assistant Professor SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Political misinformation
- Comparative political economy

Keith Darden Associate Professor SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Politics of Eurasia
- National loyalties and state-building
- Insurgency

Michelle Egan Professor SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Comparative European politics
- Federalism, trade, governance, and law
- Comparative political economy
Agustina Giraudy Professor SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Democracy听in Latin America
- Subnational politics
- Institutional integrity and accountability
Anders Hardig Senior Professorial Lecturer SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Middle Eastern Islamist movement
- Political Islam in South Asia
- Development of grassroots network听

Claudia Hofmann Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security
Research interests
- Community resilience
- Transitional organized crime
- Violent conflicts

Gina Lambright Senior Professorial Lecturer SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Research interests
- Quality of political institutions
- Decentralization
- Politics of development in Africa

Research interests
- Democracy, dictatorship and resistance
- Racial and ethnic discrimination
- Europe, the US, and Latin America
Research interests
- Politics of the Middle East
- Authoriarianism, protest and repression
- Research methods

Elizabeth Thompson Professor and Mohamed S. Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, SIS SIS | Global Inquiry
Research interests
- Liberal constitutionalism in the Middle East
- Race听and gender in听international law

Joseph Torigian Associate Professor SIS | Global Inquiry
Research interests
- Elite power struggles
- Civil-military relations
- Grand strategy
Research interests
- Democratic backsliding
- Politics of gender in Central East Europe
- Comparative politics
Yang Zhang Associate Professor SIS | Global Inquiry
Research interests
- Comparative historical sociology
- Contentious politics
- Political networks

Quansheng Zhao Professor SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security
Research interests
- Comparative politics of East Asia
- Strategies of great powers in the Asia-Pacific
Affiliated Faculty


Scott Freeman Assistant Professor SIS | Environment, Development & Health

Carolyn Gallaher Professor SIS | Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations

Louis Goodman Professor and Dean Emeritus, SIS SIS | Environment, Development & Health

Garrett Graddy-Lovelace Provost Associate Professor SIS | Environment, Development & Health

Pek Koon Heng-Blackburn Assistant Prof Emerita

Ji-Young Lee Associate Professor SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security
