The following current and former students are seeking academic appointments. Penn State’s political science Ph.D. students have been placed at some of the top institutions in the U.S.
Student | Research Interests | Committee | |
---|---|---|---|
Michael Burnham | American Politics, Text as Data, Ideology | Michael Nelson, Suzanna Linn, Kevin Munger, Bruce Desmarais, Sarah Rajtmajer, Burt Monroe | |
Faith Khumalo | Comparative Politics, Immigration and anti-Immigrant violence in sub-Saharan Africa | Joseph Wright, Burt Monroe, Matthew Golder, Johannes Wolfgang Fedderke | |
Sangyeon Kim | American politics, social media, contentious politics, data science | Bruce Desmarais, Kevin Munger, Cyanne Loyle, Charles Segiun | |
Boyoon Lee | Comparative politics, immigration and migration, East Asia | Matthew Golder, Bruce Desmarais, Boliang Zhu, Jonathan Abel, Charles Crabtree
| |
Ilayda Onder | International Relations, Terrorism and counterterrorism in India | James Piazza, Douglas Lemke, Cyanne Loyle, Daniel DellaPosta | |
Caner Simsek | Comparative politics, personalist regimes, Middle Eastern politics | Joseph Wright, Bruce Desmarais, Vineeta Yadav, Runze Li | |
Angel Villegas Cruz | International Relations, Asian Studies, Digital diplomacy | Boliang Zhu, Kevin Munger, Roseanne McManus, Jonathan Abel | |
Christopher Willis | International relations, civil war, civilian victimization | James Piazza, Cyanne Loyle, Douglas Lemke, Richard Felson |
Placement Coordinator

Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
(814) 865-4476
Areas of Interest:
- International Relations