Students on the Job Market

Catia Cecilia Confortini
Email: cconfort@wellesley.edu
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Catia Cecilia Confortini holds a PhD in International Relations from the School of International Relations at USC and an MA in International Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute of the University of Notre Dame. She is currently visiting professor of Peace and Justice Studies at Wellesley College. Dr. Confortini's work on feminist peace studies is published in the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Feminist International Relations: Conversations about the Past, Present and Future (ed. J. Ann Tickner and Laura Sjoberg, Routledge, 2011), Peace and Change, Gender, War and Militarism (ed. Laura Sjoberg and Sandra Via, Praeger/Greenwood, 2010 forthcoming) and The International Studies Encyclopedia. She is board member of the FTGS Section and secretary of the LGBTQA Caucus of the International Studies Association.

Rook Campbell
Email: rkcampbe@usc.edu

Rook Campbell currently teaches interdisciplinary studies in areas of political science and diplomacy at the University of Southern California.  Her research interests lie in three primary areas: international security, human rights, and global governance.  As a scholar of international security, she is interested in how local crime, deviance, and social control theories and practices transform in global society. Her research on security focuses on transnational criminal networks and global polity issues of financial market integrity and money laundering.  Looking at truth commissions and legal forums, her work concentrates in the sociology of human rights, while considering issues of collective memory, truth, justice, and reconciliation.  Questions of cultural politics and a discourse of freedom and rights carry through much of her work and largely inform her approach in looking at global governance.  Forged from each of these specialized research areas, she has a developing expertise in the sociology of sport.

She is author of “Staging Globalization for National Projects: Global Sport Markets and Elite Athletic Transnational Labour in Qatar” (International Review for Sociology of Sport, 2010).  Her current book manuscript is entitled, Global Governance of Sport in a Digital Age: The Political Economy of Sport Integrity Regulation. 

Christina M. Gray 
Email: grayc@usc.edu
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Christina (Ph.D. 2011) is a Politics and International Relations scholar with a research focus in human rights, gender, ethics and nongovernmental organizations. She is trained in participant observation, interview, QDA (Atlas.ti) and archival methods of research. Christina has extensive experience as a trainer, mentor, public speaker and project manager. Additional academic interests included medieval European history, conflict studies, and international law. She has lived and studied in Freiburg, Germany. She is also an experienced performer and teacher of dance and dance theater and an avid long distance trail runner.
Publications
Double- and Triple-minorities in the International Relations Classroom, International Studies Perspectives 9:4, pp.464-468. Co-author: Saori N. Katada
Available: Here
Gulag of Our Times: Diplomatic Postures and Activist Dramatics in Human Rights NGO Strategies, International Studies Association Annual Conference 2007, Chicago. Panel Paper.

Ronald Osborn
Email: rosborn@usc.edu
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Research Interests: Religion and politics, peace and conflict studies, human  rights,  political theory 
Dissertation Title: “Revolutionary Apocalypses: Re-Conceptualizing ‘Religious  Violence’  in the Cases of the Shining Path and Lord's Resistance Army” 
Education: M.Sc., School of Oriental and African Studies (2005); M.A., St. John’s  College, Annapolis (2002)
Publications
Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy  (Wipf and Stock/Cascade Books, 2010). 
“Correlates of  Violence in Guinea’s Maison Centrale Prison: A Statistical Approach to Documenting Human Rights Abuses,” Health and Human Rights (2010). 
“Nihilism’s Conscience: On Nietzsche’s  Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism,” Modern Age (forthcoming). 
“Seyla Benhabib, Wendell  Berry, and the Question of Migrant and Refugee Rights,” Humanitas (forthcoming).
“Noam Chomsky and the Realist Tradition,” Review of International Studies (April 2009).

Hong Pang 
Email: hongpang@usc.edu 
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Dissertation Title: “The Political Economy of Implementation: Intellectual Property Rights  Protection in Developing Countries”
Research Interests: International Political Economy, Comparative Politics, Political  Economy of Development, Chinese Political Economy, International Institutions, Domestic  Institutions, Negotiation, Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods
Education: M.A., University of Southern California (2010); B.A. in Economics, Peking  University (2002); B.A. in International Politics, Peking University (2002)
Why I would recommend USC POIR: The program gives students enough freedom to  pursue their specific areas of interest by taking classes from other USC departments,  working with faculty university-wide and building their own research program. The  program provides strong institutional support, not only financially (including financial  package with TA/RA assignment aligning with one's research interests, summer research funding, conference reimbursement, etc.) but also intellectually with a lot of affiliated institutes and research centers offering opportunities to interact with world-renowned scholars.

Abigail Ruane
Email: abigail.ruane@gmail.com
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Abigail E. Ruane is a 2010 Ph.D graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations. Dr. Ruane’s areas of expertise include International Relations, Political Theory, Human Rights, Peace and Justice Studies, and Women and Gender Studies. Her research addresses how inclusion shapes opportunities for justice in rights discourse, focusing on women’s human rights at the United Nations, 1948-2008. She has received four national awards for her scholarly teaching and research, including this year’s APSA Human Rights Section Best Dissertation Awardand the 2009 ISA Misty Gerner Innovative Teaching Award. Dr. Ruane lives in New York City.
Publications
“Conference Review: The 53rd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: The Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between Women and Men, Including Caregiving in the Context of HIV/AIDS.” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 13(1): 109-118. (2011)
Available: Here
"The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from the Lord of the Rings." With co-author Patrick James. International Studies Perspectives, 9(4): 377-394 (November 2008). 
Available: Here
“‘Real Men’ and Diplomats: Intercultural Diplomatic Negotiation and Masculinities in China and the United States.” International Studies Perspectives, 7(4): 342-359 (November 2006).
Available: Here
“Book Review: Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict, by Janie L. Leatherman.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. (working document) 
Available: Here

Kate Svyatets 
Email: svyatets@gmail.com
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Dissertation Topic: Energy Security and Cooperation: the Cases of the U.S.-Russia, the  U.S.-Azerbaijan, and Russia-Germany
Research Interests: Energy security and cooperation, international political economy,  foreign policy analysis, U.S.-Russia relations, Eurasia
Publications: (with Robert English and Azamat Zhanalin) “Ethnicity, Nationalism and  Migration in the Former Communist World,” in Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies  (The International Studies Association Compendium Project, 2009).
Education: M.A., University of Southern California; B.A., Vladivostok State University
Why I would recommend USC POIR: The program offers great opportunities for research  and professional development, including training in methodology outside of USC, field research abroad, and participation in conferences. The program supports PhD students and provides generous funding for research. The interests of faculty are very diverse, and every student has a wide choice of topics and methodologies to concentrate on. Faculty members work very closely with students and provide excellent guidance.
Publications
Robert English, Ekaterina Svyatets. A Presumption of Guilt? Western Media Coverage of the 2008 Russia-Georgia War. Article in revision for submission to Foreign Policy Analysis.
Robert English, Ekaterina Svyatets, Azamat Zhanalin. Nationalism and Post-Communist International Relations. In Robert A. Denemark, ed., The International Studies Encyclopedia. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pp. 5279-5301.
Ekaterina Svyatets. Borderline Democracies: The Case of Russia. Proceedings of the 5th Anniversary Convention of the Russian International Studies Association (RISA): “World Politics: View from the Future,” Moscow, MGIMO-University, September 26-27, 2008.

See the POIR Students page for a list of current students.