Academic

Global Politics & 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 dissertation work investigates the design history of non-state political identity documents and the broader questions they raise about citizenship, migration, and contemporary forms of power. My other scholarship explores frontiers in public service innovation and democracy.

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