Academic

Global Migration & Social Innovation

I am a PhD Candidate (ABD) in Politics at The New School for Social Research with a Graduate Minor in Design Studies from the Parsons School of Design.

My work investigates how citizenship, democratic participation, and political membership are evolving in the 21st century. Methodologically, I borrow from design studies, anthropology, and sociology to augment my training in political science.

Please see below for more information about my academic work.

    • Co-author, “Co-Design and Democratic Subjectivity in Transboundary Contexts” In Diffracting Public Innovation, edited by Anke Gruendel and Julio Paulos, under contract at transcript publishing, Berlin (forthcoming, 2027)

    • Second author, An Introduction to Service Design: Designing the Invisible, 2nd Ed., under contract at Bloomsbury, London (forthcoming, 2027)

    • Sole author, “Documentation and Erasure: The Neue Slowenische Kunst Passport and the Izbrisani as Parallel Byproducts of Slovenian State Design Politics,” Slovene Studies 47, no. 1 (forthcoming, 2026)

    • Co-author, “Not a Voluntary, Sustainable, or Scalable Outcome: Resilience in Urban Settings of Fragility in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Environment and Security (2025)

    • Co-author, “Designing ‘Green Democracy’ in the Age of Climate Crisis,” In Design and Democracy: Essays towards Democratic Imagination, published by IADE Press, Lisbon (2025)

    • Co-author, “Noncitizen Voting and the Politics of Common Sense in New York City,” Public Seminar, October 28, 2024

    • Co-author, “AI-Enabled Adaptive Service Blueprints: The Complexities of AI in Public Service Design.” Touchpoint Journal 15, no. 1 (2024)

    • Co-author, “Making the Law Work for People: A Handbook on Legal Empowerment and Inclusive Innovation,” Open Society Justice Initiative, September 2021

    • Sole author, “Desiccated Determinism: A Reappraisal of Self-Determination Beyond National Sovereignty,” Journal for the Critique of Science, Imagination, and New Anthropology 47, no. 276 (2019)

  • As instructor of record:

    • Comparative Political Systems (SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology, Spring 2026)

    • Global Politics and Power (SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology, Fall 2025)

    • Public & Collaborative Services (Parsons School of Design, Fall 2025)

    • Political and Economic Ideologies of the Modern World (Columbia University, Pre-College Program, Summer 2024; Summer 2025)

    • Advanced Research Seminar: Constructed Environments (Parsons School of Design, Fall 2022; Fall 2023; Fall 2025)

    As teaching assistant:

    • How to Think/Act in Dark Times: Exploring a Critical Praxis (Parsons School of Design, Spring 2025; Spring 2026)

    • Guest lecturer, “Democracy and Voice Assembly,” Parsons School of Design, Transdisciplinary Design Program PGTD 5600: Assembly: Transdisciplinary Practices Today, New York, NY, November 20, 2025

    • Guest lecturer, “Arts Activism & Political Change in (ex-)Yugoslav Space,” The College of William & Mary Government Department Seminar GOVT 150: War & Peace in the Balkans, November 17, 2025 (Virtual)

    • Sole paper author and presenter, “Performing State Effects: The Neue Slowenische Kunst Passport as an Intervention in Global Citizenship Politics,” Panel: Performativity in International Relations, International Studies Association (ISA) Northeast Conference, Providence, RI, November 7-8, 2025

    • Presenter, “The Hidden Histories of the Passport,” Columbia Pre-College Programs Faculty Lecture Series, New York, NY, July 29, 2025

    • Guest lecturer, “The Visual Ideology of Citizenship Politics: The NSK State & Its Passport,” Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ideologies of the Visual, Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 14, 2025

    • Co-author and sole presenter, “Co-Design and Democratic Subjectivity in Transboundary Contexts,” STS Hub 2025, Berlin, Germany, March 13, 2025

    • Member of panel, “Democracy and Design,” final conference of Governing Through Design research project supported by Sinergia Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Berlin, Germany, October 24, 2024

    • Presenter, “Rethinking Borders: Territory, Infrastructure, and Justice,” Columbia Pre-College Programs Faculty Lecture Series, New York, NY, July 23, 2024

    • Panel moderator, “From Emergency to Sustainable Responses to Migration,” NYC Partnering for Migration Justice Summit, New York, NY, February 1, 2024

    • Guest lecturer, “Creative Activist Strategies against Social Institutions of Corruption,” The College of William & Mary Government Department Seminar GOVT 150: War & Peace in the Balkans, December 4, 2023 (Virtual)

    • Discussant, “Designing for Care,” DESIS Philosophy Talk by Arturo Escobar and Virginia Tassinari, Service Design and Innovation (ServDes) Conference, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, July 12, 2023 

    • Student forum presenter, “Unsteady State: Civic Service Design as a Space of Democratic Contestation,” Service Design and Innovation (ServDes) Conference, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, July 13, 2023

    • Paper co-author and presenter, “The Evolving Case of Non-Citizen Voting in New York City,” Zolberg Institute on Migration & Mobility New York City Immigration Works-in-Progress Conference, New York, NY, September 22-23, 2022

    • Paper co-author, “Opting Out: Understanding Low Levels of Participation in Local Governance in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia,” Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic East European and Eurasian Studies, Washington, DC, November 17-20, 2011

    • Paper co-author, “Explaining the Varying Impact of International Aid for Local  Democratic Governance in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Annual Convention of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, WA, September 1-4, 2011

    • Special Issue Journal Peer Reviewer, Design Issues, MIT Press (2025)

    • Member of Selection Panel, Fulbright Student and Scholar Generation 2025/26, Slovenia

    • Member of Faculty Search Committee, Politics Department and Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, The New School for Social Research (2024)

    • Dean’s Advisory Council Representative, Union of Political Science Students (UPSS), The New School for Social Research (2022-2024)

    • Member, International Studies Association (ISA)

      — Ethnicity, Nationalism, & Migration Studies Section

      — International Political Sociology Section

    • Member, Society for Slovene Studies

    • Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography & Social Thought (GIDEST) Fellowship, The New School, 2025-2026

    • Fulbright Open Research Award (Slovenia), 2024-2025

    • Rado L. Lenček Award for Best Graduate Paper in Slovenian Studies, The Society for Slovene Studies, 2025

    • Melamid Doctoral Fellowship in Migration Studies, Zolberg Institute on  Migration & Mobility, The New School, 2021-2024

    • Best Study Achievement of the Year, Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, 2018

    • Benjamin Stoddard Ewell Award for Studies in Liberal Arts, The College of William & Mary Student Assembly, 2014

    • Werner Weingartner Student Research Fellowship for International Affairs, The College of Willam & Mary, Roy R. Charles Center for Academic Excellence, 2011-2013

    • James Monroe Upperclass Research Grant, The College of William & Mary; Project: Study of sub-municipal governance structures in North Macedonia, 2012

    • William & Mary Sophomore Man of the Year, Omicron Delta Kappa Honors Society, The College of William & Mary, 2012