Teaching Statement

My teaching philosophy is based on many years of trial-and-error both in and out of the classroom, where I have taught courses in methods and research design, international relations theory, international security, nationalism and civil wars, foreign policy analysis, US foreign policy, populism and ethnic conflict management.

I am not a fan of traditional lecturing. From the time that I began teaching at Central European University, I have followed a mixed lecture-seminar approach to teaching, wherein I first encourage students to think about the theories and models in methodical detail, then pivot to challenging them to address live policy problems to which such models might profitably be applied. At times, this involves impromptu class debates over the appropriate mode of conflict management in a given case, for example. On the most basic level, I see my job as an instructor to unsettle what it is that students believe they understand about the political and social universe and train students to excavate the logical inconsistencies and/or empirical anomalies that attend to existing understandings of the world.

Because I believe social science has practical value, I am committed to continually tailoring my courses in order to bring abstract theories down to earth to help students appreciate the real-world implications of different theories in the field. To this end, all my courses include exercises and simulations. For a course on ethnic conflict management, my teaching assistants–Natalia Peral and Milos Popovic–and I developed and delivered a simulation of the League of Nations arbitration of the Aland Islands dispute between Finland and Sweden in 1919-21, challenging each side to try to improve on the historical terms of 1921 Aland Agreement brokered by the League of Nations.

In teaching foreign policy analysis, I have run multiple in-class simulations, including managing a new fictional migration crisis in Europe, conducting roundtable talks in the Afghan peace process, and short simulations of regional crisis management. Every four years, I also co-teach a course on US Politics and Foreign Policy with Political Science Professor Levente Littvay. For this course, we assign students into teams who, a week prior to the general election, offer presentations on a selection of swing states—including an electoral prognosis for presidential, congressional and state elections, as well as any important referenda in state and local elections.

Most years I have also taught the mandatory methods and research design course for probationary PhD candidates in the Doctoral School, combining instruction with practicum. I developed a series of assignments aimed at encouraging them to develop their dissertation proposals into a defendable prospectus at the end of their probationary year. I have worked to develop a set of principles for theory development and research design that apply across a range of different methodological approaches and subject areas; I am continuing to make adjustments to accommodate the different needs of those developing pure theory projects. 

For the past two years, I have developed and delivered two one-week courses on qualitative longitudinal case studies and mixed-methods research designs at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Summer School in Budapest, now at Methods-Net. These courses were designed for doctoral and early career scholars who are seeking to integrate multiple methods and data sources to optimally address the specific research questions asked by the students. For each course, I have culled the most helpful theoretical and practical readings on key elements of these project (including problem definition, theory development, and research strategy). I offer additional recommendations to each student based on my familiarity with the nature of their particular project. These lessons are followed by workshopping sessions wherein students participate in brainstorming practical solutions to mostly technical problems—including how to combine multiple concept measures, data sources and modes of empirical analysis to optimally address each student’s research question.