David Romano holds the Thomas G. Strong Chair in Middle East Politics at Missouri State University (MSU).  His work has appeared in journals such as International Affairs, The Oxford Journal of Refugee Studies, Third World Quarterly, International Studies Perspectives, the Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, Ethnopolitics and the journal of Kurdish Studies.  He is the author of The Kurdish Nationalist Movement (Cambridge University Press, 2006 — also translated into Kurdish, Turkish and Persian) and the co-editor of Conflict, Democratization and the Kurdish Issue in the Middle East (Palgrave Mamillan, 2014) and The Kurds in the Middle East: Enduring Problems and New Dynamics (Lexingtoon, 2020). 

From 2010 to 2020 he wrote a weekly political column for Rudaw, the largest Kurdish media site, and in 2024 he served as a visiting professor at the University of Kurdistan in Hawler.  Dr. Romano was also the recipient of the 2015 Missouri Governor’s award for teaching, MSU’s 2020 Foundation Award for Service, and MSU’s 2020 Award for Excellence in Study Abroad Programming.

Dr. Romano received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and his M.A. and B.A. from McGill University.