Job Market Candidates
Our current Ph.D. candidates and recent graduates span the major fields of study in political science. We have a strong record of job placement in academic, public service, and business settings. The directory below lists current and former students seeking employment this academic year. If you have questions please contact the individual candidate or the 2025-26 placement director, Jaye Seawright (email).
Job Market Candidates 2025-2026
Nicolette Alayón
- Field(s) of Study: American Politics, Methods
- Research Interests: Political behavior and motivation, parasocial interaction, opinion leadership.
- Dissertation Title: Celebrity and Influencer Power in American Politics: Parasocial Relationships, Digital Media, and Public Trust
- Dissertation Committee: Alvin B. Tillery, Jr. (Chair), Tabitha Bonilla, Chloe Thurston
- Email: nalayon@upenn.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Michelle Bueno Vásquez
- Field(s) of Study: American Politics, Methods
- Research Interests: Race and Inequity with a focus on the Afro-Latino diaspora, both in the United States and in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Dissertation Title: Transnational Racial Formation and Charting a Space for Afro-Latinos
- Dissertation Committee: Reuel R. Rogers (Chair); Alvin B. Tillery, Jr; Chloe N. Thurston; James Mahoney; Danielle Clealand (UT-Austin)
- Email: mbuenov@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Tim Charlebois
- Field(s) of Study: Political Theory
- Research Interests: Contemporary political theory; ethics of care; epistemic injustice; critical phenomenology; democratic theory; feminist theory; disability studies; trauma studies; politics & literature; interpretation of texts
- Dissertation Title: Attention Between Ethics and Politics: Weil, Arendt, Tronto
- Dissertation Committee: Mary G. Dietz (Chair), Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., Loubna El Amine (King's College London)
- Email: charlebois@northwestern.edu
- Web Page
Shah Zeb Chaudhary
- Field(s) of Study: International Relations, Political Theory
- Research Interest: Emotions & Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy, South Asia
- Dissertation Title: Melodramatic Nations and Serious States: Political Affect in Pakistan-U.S. Relations
- Dissertation Committee: Ian Hurd (Chair), Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Loubna El Amine (King's College London), Robert Hariman (Communication Studies), Elisabeth Anker (George Washington University)
- Email: shahchaudhary@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Shawn Dean
- Field(s) of Study: Political Theory
- Research Interests: Republicanism, Machiavelli, Emergency, Realism
- Dissertation Title: Plebeian Realism: the Politics of Order in the Work of Machiavelli
- Dissertation Committee: Mary Dietz (Chair); James Farr; Loubna El Amine (King's College London)
- Email: shawndean2023@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page
Daniel Encinas Zevallos
- Field(s) of Study: Comparative Politics
- Research Interests: Political Regimes, Subnational Politics, and Civil Wars in Latin America; multi-methods research design; the application of qualitative methods to experimental and statistical analysis
- Dissertation Committee: James Mahoney (Chair); Ana M. Arjona; Jaye N. Seawright
- Email: danielencinas2021@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page
Qin Huang
- Field(s) of Study: Comparative Politics, Methods
- Research Interests: Comparative Political Economy, Institutional Change, and Bureaucratic Politics
- Dissertation Title: Patchwork Capitalism: Institutional Change and Regional Economies in China
- Dissertation Committee: James Mahoney (Co-Chair); Iza Ding (Co-Chair); Jordan Gans-Morse; Jaye N. Seawright; Yuhua Wang (Harvard)
- Email: qinhuang2024@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Usdin Martinez Orellanos
- Field(s) of Study: Political Theory
- Dissertation Committee: Loubna El Amine (Chair); Mary Dietz; James Farr
- Email: usdinmartinez2024@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page
Sam McChesney
- Field(s) of Study: Political Theory
- Research Interests: Ancient Greek political thought, hermeneutics, history of ideas, Hannah Arendt.
- Dissertation Title: Political Courage
- Dissertation Committee: Mary G. Dietz (chair), James Farr, Ryan K. Balot (University of Toronto)
- Email: samuelmcchesney2023@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Monique Newton
- Field(s) of Study: American Politics
- Research Interests: Black Political Behavior, Urban Politics, Trauma, Collective Memory, Local Reparations
- Dissertation Title: Worst Behavior: How Traumatic Events Impact Local Political Participation of Black Neighborhoods in the United States
- Dissertation Committee: Reuel R. Rogers (Chair); Traci Burch; James Druckman (Rochester); Sally A. Nuamah
- Email: mnewton@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page
Ely Orrego Torres
- Field(s) of Study: International Relations, Political Theory
- Research Interests: Religion and politics, political theology, international organizations, critical theory, human rights education, women and gender studies, ecojustice, Global South.
- Dissertation Title: Freeing Religion: Transnational Religious Networks at the Organization of American States (OAS)
- Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Chair), Ian Hurd, Kim Marion Suiseeya (Duke), Michelle Molina (Religious Studies)
- Email: eorrego@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Caroline Pippert
- Field(s) of Study: American Politics, Methods
- Research Interests: Political efficacy, electoral institutions, representation, voting behavior, youth turnout, public opinion, survey research, experiments
- Dissertation Committee: James Druckman (Chair), Reuel R. Rogers; Laurel Harbridge-Yong; Mary C. McGrath
- Email: carolinepippert2025@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page
Andrew Saab
- Field(s) of Study: Comparative Politics, Methods
- Research Interests: Political Economy; Institutions and Political Behavior; Policy-Making and Group Decision-Making; Conflict and Violence; Computational Social Science
- Dissertation Title: Essays on Political Economy, Institutions, and Behavior
- Dissertation Committee: Jordan Gans-Morse (Chair); Jaye N. Seawright; Brian Libgober
- Email: AndrewSaab2025@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page (CV)
Dinara Urazova
- Field(s) of Study: Comparative Politics, International Relations
- Research Interests: Interpretivism, Historical Sociology, Communication and Technology, Russia and Eurasia
- Dissertation Title: Power and Spectacle in Post-Soviet Russia
- Dissertation Committee: William Reno (Chair); Marc Crepon (Co-Chair, ENS-Lyon); Ian Hurd; Michael Loriaux
- Email: dinaraurazova2024@u.northwestern.edu
- Web Page