What I Study

In general I work within the field of International Relations. But I have four broad research agendas:
 
(1)  Identity politics and foreign policy. How group identity it is formed, sustained, and manifested, and how groups contest with each other to shape national identity and foreign policy.

(2)  The interplay between emotions, memory, language, and images. How groups construct and represent memory (this is about identity, too); how events and actors generate emotional reactions in in-groups; how these memories and reactions are described to others; and how all of these translate into specific outcomes.

(3)  Middle East politics. Regional politics, but also the epistemology of the region (how we think about and study the Middle East). My two primary countries of study are Israel and Turkey.

(4) Pedagogy. Contributing to IR scholars' and teachers' ability to teach the Middle East and IR more effectively, but also how they come to adopt particular methodologies and theoretical frameworks.