Welcome!

I am a global sociologist pursuing case-driven theoretical puzzles. My multi-method research focuses on two fundamental questions:

1) How does social continuity emerge amidst conflict, inequality, and change? I study citizenship, community, and social movements at multiple scales. I am especially interested in individual experiences in the context of national and transnational social institutions. I have drawn insights from the Esperanto movement and from migrant experiences, including my own.

2) What influences people’s actions? My research is on participation in violence. This work, however, has broader implications for theories of action. I examine how individuals’ actions are embedded in both human cognition and in social institutions.

A major theme in my research is the role of culture in global social stratification. I address several dimensions of global cultural stratification:

  1. Citizenship: I examine how nation-states maintain cross-national inequalities through the institution of citizenship and how migrants challenge and experience symbolic and physical violence from nation-states (“Citizenship as a Caste Marker“).
  2. Civil society: I show how state socialism shaped unique civil societies in Eastern Europe (“Nationalized Cosmopolitanism with Communist Characteristics,” “Neither Dupes nor Rebels”); and how social movements adopt distinct legitimation strategies to survive based on their nation-state’s ideological conditions (“Nationalized Cosmopolitanism with Communist Characteristics“).
  3. Global institutional logics: I demonstrate how the establishment of a global community logic explains the endurance of transnational communities (“Rationalization of Belonging“); I propose that routine practices and self-identifications linked to oppositional institutional logics can lead to participation in political violence (“World Culture, Uncoupling, Institutional Logics, and Recoupling“).
  4. Gender: I inquire into how gendered institutions account for differential participation in political violence (“Institutionalized Behavior, Morality, and Domination,” “World Culture, Uncoupling, Institutional Logics, and Recoupling“).

To learn more about my projects and findings, visit my Research and Publications pages.

My global perspective has been shaped by living, working, and studying on three continents. I hold the position of Croft Associate Professor of Sociology and International Studies at the University of Mississippi. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow with COES − Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies in Santiago, Chile. I earned a PhD in Sociology and Peace Studies (with a minor in Gender Studies) from the University of Notre Dame, an MA in Foreign Languages and Literatures from Southern Illinois University, and a BA in French Philology from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.”

Growing up in state-socialist Bulgaria and experiencing the country’s transition to democracy and capitalism influenced my interest in large-scale social processes and their effects on individuals. Before becoming a sociologist, I taught foreign languages, including English, French, and Spanish. My research led me to learning Esperanto too.

I occasionally blog at Mobilizing Ideas.