Welcome! I am a fifth year PhD Candidate in the Department of Government at Cornell University. For the 2026-27 academic year, I will be the Einstein-Moos Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Center on Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law. In fall 2027, I will start as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina.

My research interests are in comparative politics and political behavior, which I study using both quantitative and qualitative methods including experimental and causal inference research designs, elite and mass surveys, interviews, focus groups, and comparative case studies. My dissertation book project examines civic participation, demonstrating how and why civil society can encourage individuals to depolarize and reject democratic erosion. Outside of this work, I maintain an ongoing research agenda on political communication and democratic resilience. While my primary focus is on post-communist democracies in Eastern Europe, my work also draws comparisons with cases of democratic backsliding globally.

My work has been published in Perspectives on Politics and Government & Opposition, and an edited volume from Cambridge University Press, and has been generously supported by the US Departments of State and Education, APSA Centennial Center, Hoover Institution, Roper Center, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, American Councils, and Cornell Einaudi Center. My dissertation was also awarded the 2025 Kahin Prize in International Relations by the Cornell Department of Government for the “most promising dissertation on foreign politics.'' 

At Cornell, I am an affiliate of the Center on Global Democracy, Institute for European Studies, and Cornell Center for the Social Sciences and a graduate research assistant for the Russian Election Study. I am a co-founder and convener of the East European Politics Graduate Workshop.

Prior to Cornell, I earned my AM in Russian, East European, and Central Asian studies from Harvard University and a BA in History and Political Science with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In Spring 2024, I was a Junior Visiting Scholar and Brettschneider Exchange Student at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. From Fall 2024-2025 I was a visiting researcher at Uniwersytet SWPS (Warszawa), in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Polish National Election Study.  

A copy of my CV can be found here.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about myself or my work, applying to graduate school, or with other questions. You can contact me at kfc45 [at] cornell [dot] edu.