Ph.D. Students & Mentorship

I absolutely love teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. Please email me to set up a time to meet about research and/or class opportunities.

I consider mentoring Ph.D. students to be one of the biggest honors and privileges of my career. Below is a list of my finished Ph.D. students and their placements.

Apologies if this list is not completely up-to-date—all of these scholars are doing amazing things and often get new opportunities, which makes it difficult to keep up!

Ryan Yu-Lin Liou, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2024 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Visiting Instructor at Wabash College 

Pedro Goulart, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2023 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Researcher with the Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach (CenHTRO)

Shanshan Lian, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2023 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Human Rights, University of Alabama, Birmingham 

Chun-Young Park, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2023 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Nazarbayev University (Tenure Track)

Huimin Cheng University of Georgia, PhD in Statistics, 2023 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Boston University (Tenure Track)

Yuan Wang, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2022 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Ripeon College (Tenure Track)

Morgan Barney Calhoun, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2022 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Health Policy Analyst at Novant Health

Tara Trask, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2021 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Lecturer at Clemson University

Peter Brunke, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2021 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Air Force Command and Staff College, Alabama. US Air Force Officer

Ye Wang, University of Georgia, PhD in Statistics, 2021 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: State Farm Senior Data Analyst

Erin Little, University of Alabama, PhD in Political Science, 2021 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Lecturer at University of Georgia

George Williford, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2021 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Facebook/Meta 

Naji Bsisu, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2020 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Maryville College (Tenure Track)

Matthew Kopp, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2020 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation in Nairobi, Kenya, US Army Officer 

Joshua Jackson, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2020 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Analyst, Washington, DC

Sarah Hunter, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2019 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Lecturer at Clemson University

Austin Doctor, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2019 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: University of Nebraska, Omaha (Tenure Track)

Filip Viskupic, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2019 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: South Dakota State University (Tenure Track)

Laila Farooq, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2018 Dissertation Co-Chair, Current Position: Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Art at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi (Tenure Track)

Doug Atkinson, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2018 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Brigham Young University (Tenure Track)

Jessica Anderson Schofield, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2017 Dissertation Co-Chair, Current Position: Western Connecticut University (Tenure Track)

Carolin Purser, University of Georgia, PhD in Political Science and International Affairs, 2017 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Vice President of Strategy at the Center for Literacy and Learning

Colton Heffington, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2017 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Sandia National Laboratories

Jeffrey King, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2017 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: American University of Sharjah, UAE (Tenure Track)

Zachary Bowersox, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2016 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Lecturer at Washington University

Marc Polizzi, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2016 Dissertation Chair, Current Position: Murray State University (Tenure Track)

Travis Ernst, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2016 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: U.S. Department of State

Christopher Patane, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2016 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Lecturer at Sam Houston State University 

Courtney Burns, University of Missouri, PhD in Political Science, 2015 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Bucknell University (Tenure Track)

Shon McCormick, Kansas State University, PhD in Security Studies, 2013 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: US Army War College Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Jerome Sibayan, Kansas State University, PhD in Security Studies, 2013 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Instructor at Portland State University, Formerly at The United States Army War College

Zijun Luo, Kansas State University, PhD in Economics, 2012 Dissertation Committee, Current Position: Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services