Sasha Klyachkina, Ph.D. Candidate

klyachkina@u.northwestern.edu

Northwestern University

Country: United States (Illinois)

About Me:

I am a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University, specializing in comparative politics. My primary research interests include political violence, state-building, microfoundations of order, and institutional change. Regionally, my work focuses on the North Caucasus region in Russia. I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia but raised around Chicago. I graduated summa cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio with honors in Political Science and International Studies. Prior to attending graduate school at Northwestern, I spent two years teaching high school in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Research Interests

Conflict Processes & War

State and Local Politics

Non-Democratic Regimes

Post-Communist Politics

Political Violence

Political Participation

State-citizen Interactions

Non-state Actors

Caucasus

Subnational Authoritarianism

Political Order

Governance

Countries of Interest

Russia

My Research:

My dissertation looks at how the individuals and communities responded to the processes of state breakdown, and how the adaptations and forms of engagement during this time left distinct legacies for the reconstitution of governance and state institutions. I am broadly interested in how individuals engage in their societies, ranging from local forms of self-organization and coping mechanisms to demands they make on different state and non-state authorities. I look at how different patterns of violence intervene in this process and the demands made.