I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Binghamton University, SUNY. My primary field is Comparative Politics with a focus on comparative political economy and democratization. Determinants and consequences of economic inequality constitute one of my research areas. My minor field is International Relations where my interest lies in international conflict, foreign policy and international political economy. My work has appeared or is forthcoming in World Politics, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, European Political Science Review, Canadian Journal of Political Science, International Journal of Comparative Sociology and Turkish Studies.

In my dissertation that received the 2011 Juan Linz Prize for Best Dissertation,  awarded by the American Political Science Association’s Comparative Democratization Section, I showed that inequality does not diminish after democratization, and I asked why it is that new democracies cannot generate income equality.   I adopted a multi-method technique to test the theory of my dissertation. I used one large-N regression analysis and two paired case studies. The case studies examined two regions in Europe that were democratized during the Third Wave. I used the “most similar system” research design, pairing Turkey and Spain in southern Europe and the Czech Republic and Poland in the postcommunist region.