Meet our Postdoctoral Scholars 

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Each year the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law invites several pre and/or postdoctoral scholars to Stanford. Our fellows work in any of the three program areas of democracy, development, and rule of law.   Over the course of the academic year, scholars use their fellowship to complete their projects, participate in seminars, and interact with each other and the resident faculty and research staff. 

This year we are very excited to have Nathan Grubman, Salma Mousa, and Leah Rosenzweig with us at the Center. We talked to them about their research interests, what they're working on while at Stanford, and why they chose to come to CDDRL. 

Nathan Grubman
Yale University

About Nathan: 

Nathan expects to receive his PhD in political science from Yale University in December 2020. He is currently working on a book project on the question of why party systems in some new democracies tend to lack left-right cleavages that are often found in established democracies. In particular, he looks at the case of Tunisia after the 2010-11 uprising. Nathan recently presented his research in the talk "Nostalgia and Populisms in Contemporary Tunisia" for the CDDRL Seminar Series. 

Why did you choose CDDRL?

"I’ve followed CDDRL for a very long time. It has a unique mix of people who are focused on democracy and democratization in parts of the world where it doesn’t receive as much attention, and scholars focused on democracy in the US as well. I’m also really excited by some of the people at CDDRL—those who focus on the Arab world but also those who focus on Eastern Europe and democratization more generally. They can help me broaden the scope of my research."

Learn more about Nathan's research in this interview with Associate Director for Research Didi Kuo.

Salma Mousa
Stanford University 

About Salma: 

An Egyptian-Canadian raised in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Canada, Salma Mousa received her PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 2020. She is currently working on two research agendas. The first is about the tools and strategies we have for building social cohesion, primarily between migrants and host societies, but also between religious and ethnic groups in the Middle East and the US. Her second research focus is how we can best integrate refugees in the US economically and socially. She will be presenting her research for CDDRL in the upcoming talk "Building Social Cohesion through Soccer in Post-ISIS Iraq". 

Why did you choose CDDRL?

"I’ve been floating around CDDRL during my time at Stanford, including teaching for Professor Fukuyama. But for me it was a natural home given that my work is very interdisciplinary. Work on intergroup contact and prejudice reduction and integration has a lot of implications for economics, social psychology, political science, sociology, and I draw on methods and theories from all of these places. At the same time I try to make my work as policy relevant and as situated in the real world with real world interventions as much as possible. To get that interdisciplinary exposure and to have the chance to pick the brains and workshop my ideas with a group of scholars who are so policy oriented really fit my research model."

Hear more about Salma's work in this interview with Mosbacher Director of CDDRL Francis Fukuyama.

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Leah Rosenzweig
MIT

About Leah: 

Leah Rosenzweig holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT. Her current project looks at social voting in semi-authoritarian states. In places where elections aren't competitive why does anyone even vote? Her answer is that there is social pressure--not out of civic duty to the state, but rather to the local community. People see elections as a way to gain benefits and help their local communities. She tests this theory in Tanzania and Uganda. She recently presented her talk "Informing Government Response to COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa" for CDDRL. 

Why did you choose CDDRL?

"CDDRL covers a lot of the same themes and topics that I’m interested in within development and democracy. But mostly I was drawn to the interdisciplinary group of scholars engaged in policy-relevant research, whether that’s other political scientists like myself, economists, legal scholars, and others. The environment of all of these really great intellectuals engaging on these topics was what attracted me to the program."

Learn more about Leah and her work in this interview.

The CDDRL Pre and Post Doctoral Fellowship Program is now accepting applications. Please visit this site to learn more about the application process, and contact kdchandl@stanford.edu with any questions. 

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A Note from the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program

To our supportive community,

On behalf of all of us at the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program, we hope that you and your loved ones are remaining safe and healthy. We would like to provide you with a short update on the program.

Due to the evolving situation with COVID-19, our selected fellows in consultation with the program team have made the difficult decision to postpone the next year of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program until 2021-22. The health of our fellows is most important, and recent limitations about in-person instruction would have made it impossible for our fellows to enjoy a fruitful experience this year.

That being said, we would still like to introduce you to our incoming class. We expect to be able to invite them for the 2021-22 academic year and sincerely hope you will join us in welcoming our incoming fellows at that point.

Finally, although we are deferring our fellows for a year, the Program will continue, and we hope the virtual format will provide new opportunities. We will keep you updated as to any program events we conduct over the course of this modified year.

We are very excited to have these three fellows join us as soon as it is safe and healthy to do so, and wish the circumstances would have allowed us to have them with us on campus sooner.

Sincerely,
The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program Team

Yulia Bezvershenko
Ministry of Education and Science 

Yulia Bezvershenko is Director General of Directorate for Science and Innovation at the Ministry of Education and Science. The Directorate was created for policy development and implementation in the research, development and innovation sector.  

Since the Revolution of Dignity, Bezvershenko has been deeply involved in the reform of science development and implementation process. Her mission is to build knowledge-based Ukraine as economy and society based on knowledge, science and innovation. She has contributed to the Law on Science, which was adopted by Parliament in 2015. In cooperation with scientists and reformers she developed and actively participated in the creation of two new institutions, the National Council on Science and Technology and the National Science Fund. Bezvershenko currently works both on implementation of the aforementioned law and on its future iterations.

Bezvershenko holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics (National Academy of Science of Ukraine) and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Governance from the Kyiv School of Economics. She has diverse experience in the research and development sector, having worked as a researcher at the Bogolyubov Institute as well as a senior lecturer on quantum theory at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Until 2019, Yulia was a Deputy Head of Young Scientists Council of National Academy of Science of Ukraine and Vice-President of NGO "Unia Scientifica" aimed to promote science and to advocate reform of science in Ukraine.

Denis Gutenko
State Fiscal Service/Ministry of Economy

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Before joining the State Fiscal Service, Gutenko had worked in the Ministry of Economy since 2015. Gutenko promoted deregulation and improvement of business climate agenda. He initiated and successfully lobbied Parliament to adopt laws on the liberalization of international trade and currency, the transparency of scrap metal exports, and the reform of a corrupt ecological tax policy. Gutenko also led the removal of administrative barriers and outdated currency restrictions, resulting in the increased flow of services and payments for Ukrainian freelancers and small and medium enterprises.

Prior to this Gutenko began his career in the private sector as a banker, auditor and agribusiness manager, experiences that sparked his interest in improving the Ukrainian state bureaucracy and fighting widespread corruption.

Gutenko’s focus while at CDDRL will be on good governance and public administration reform, both of which remain significant opportunities and challenges for Ukraine. He looks forward to being an active member of Leadership Network for Change, and to continuing to challenge himself while at Stanford.

Nariman Ustaiev
Gasprinski Institute

Nariman Ustaiev is co-founder and Director at Gasprinski Institute for Geostrategy. He is also an external advisor for the Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk Regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. 

His work explores the multiple dimensions of Ukraine’s foreign and security policy and their intersection with good governance based on human rights. His areas of expertise are foreign policy; political and security challenges in the Black Sea Region; and human rights and Crimean Tatar issues. 

Prior to this Nariman had worked for governmental institutions responsible for Ukraine’s security policy, namely the National Security and Defense Council, the Secretariat of the Cabinet Ministers and the State Service for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol for many years. 

Nariman graduated from the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Academy for Foreign Trade and Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.