Graduate Student Affiliate

Blaze Joel

Graduate Student
History

Blaze Joel is a Ph.D. student in the History Department at the University of California Berkeley. His research focuses on nationalism, memory, violence, and national identity in twentieth-century Europe. He studies these issues in the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and the Basque Country, as well as in an international, trans-European framework. He also studies the Cold War in a global perspective.

Joel is a recipient of the 2021 IIS...

Max Kagan

Graduate Student
Political Science

Max Kagan is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on international political economy. His main research interest is the political impact of cross-border flows of money and people. In particular, he focuses on how multinational corporations and financial firms interact with international and national politics.

Otto Kienitz

Graduate Student
Political Science

Otto Kienitz is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on autocratic institutions in comparative perspective ranging from Europe to imperial and post-Soviet Eurasia. His dissertation explores the relationship between local self-government and state capacity in Russia, Ottoman Turkey, and China. He is the co-founder of the Berkeley Historical Social Science Workshop and concentrates on the role of local political economy in autocratic state-building.

Kienitz is a recipient of the 2021...

Anatol Klass

Graduate Student
History

Anatol Klass is a doctoral student in History at the University of California, Berkeley. He researches the modern Chinese state’s encounters with international organizations and international law in the twentieth century. His work explores Chinese state-building and the construction of global governance regimes as interrelated processes.

Matthew Kovac

Graduate Student
History

Matthew Kovac is PhD student in History at the University of California, Berkeley. His current research focuses on the Irish republican movement, decolonization, and the Global Cold War.

Kovac is the recipient of the 2021 IIS Pre-Dissertation Research Grant.

Rafi Lazerson

Graduate Student
Goldman School of Public Policy

Rafi Lazerson is an MPA candidate at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. His policy focus is on interdisciplinary evidence-based approaches to address extremist disinformation online and related security threats. Rafi has several years of professional experience in research-solutions, advocacy, organization leadership, project management, and partnership-facilitation. He received a BA in Political Science from the Brooklyn College Scholars Program.

Joseph A. Ledford

Graduate Student
History

Joseph A. Ledford is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Departmentat the University of California, Berkeley, where he specializes in the history of U.S. foreign relations and the American presidency. His research and writing generally focus on the exercise of American power in the world, as well as presidential power and the relationship between domestic politics and foreign affairs. He maintains a broad interest in matters of intelligence, strategy, and war.

Manseok Lee

Graduate Student
Goldman School of Public Policy

Manseok Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in public policy at UC Berkeley and an active duty army major of the Republic of Korea. His research interests include international order in East Asia, strategic stability, nuclear nonproliferation regime, North Korea’s nuclear strategy, and US-China relations. Previously, he held an instructor position in war history at the Army College of Korea, worked for the Ministry of National Defense of Korea, and was a research associate at the Center for Global Security Research in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Manseok received master's degrees both...

Gabriel Lesser

Graduate Student
Spanish and Portuguese

Gabriel Lesser is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. His interests include 19th and 20th century humor, visual studies, caricatures, and cartoons in Mexico and Brazil.

He is the recipient of the 2021 IIS Pre-Disseration Research Grant.

Meiqing Li

Graduate Student
City and Regional Planning

Meiqing Li is a PhD student in City and Regional Planning at University of California, Berkeley. She studies the intersection of sustainable transportation planning, travel behavior, and built environment in the US and Asia.