I am Executive Director of Threatologist. I am also Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Portsmouth, where I teach modules on Russian and Eurasian politics and history and various aspects of political violence and nonviolent resistance. I previously taught the same topics at the University of Birmingham. These roles have equipped me with broad subject-matter expertise and strong verbal and written communication skills.
I completed my PhD at the University of Birmingham, where I examined ideological variance and change in the North Caucasus insurgency between 2007 and 2015. Prior to that, I worked for seven years as an opensource intelligence analyst for the US Government.
My experience covers the following domains:
- I have worked extensively with policymaking communities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.
- I have extensive experience in project management, having managed research projects and two postgraduate programmes at the University of Portsmouth.
- I routinely supervise students at all levels of study, from undergraduate to postdoctoral, and serve as representative on the faculty ethics committee.
- I regularly review articles and manuscripts for academic journals and am an associate editor of the Caucasus Survey journal.
- I exploit a variety of methods and approaches in my research — including social movement theory, social network analysis, geospatial analysis, relational database construction, and field research and interviews — and have acquired technical skills in a range of associated software.
- I am a fully trained linguist, with an MA in Translation Studies and full certification in the Trados computer-assisted translation tool.
You can learn more about my work by checking out the Research tab.