Irene Morse

My research explores the ways in which individual citizens’ beliefs about and understandings of democracy can reinforce or undermine authoritarian rule. As an expert in Turkish and Middle Eastern politics, I leverage insights from this region to push forward the broader comparative literature on authoritarianism, migration, transnational activism, and political communication. To extract these insights, I embrace a mix of both quantitative and qualitative research methods, ranging from interviews and surveys to formal modeling and computational text analysis. My work also consistently transcends subfields and even disciplines, as I have found that literature from American politics, sociology, and migration is all informative to my research goals. I therefore seek to foster collaboration and robust debate with diverse audiences throughout the research process.