David Romano, PhD
Visiting Professor of Political Science
Introduction
David Romano is a visiting professor of political science at UKH. In the United States, he holds the Thomas G. Strong Chair in Middle East Politics at Missouri State University. 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 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. 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.
Education
- - Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Toronto, 2002
- - M.A. in Political Science, McGill University, 1993
- - B.A. in Middle East Studies and Political Science, McGill University, 1991
Research
Professor Romano’s research focuses on nationalism, social movements, theories of peace and conflict, political violence, politicized Islam, Middle-East politics (with a special emphasis on Turkey, Iraq, the Kurds and other Middle Eastern minorities) and foreign policy. Some of his more recent work includes: The Kurds in the Middle East: Enduring Problems and New Dynamics (co-edited with Mehmet Gurses and Michael M. Gunter). Lexington Books, 2020; “The Kurdish Conflict in Turkey: The Central Role of Identity Recognition (or Lack Thereof)” (co-authored with Suren Jamal Mohammed), Journal of Ethnopolitics, 2023; “Nations across Borders” (co-authored with Katelin Knight), in Neophytos Loizides and Nukhet Sandal (eds.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022; and “Sub-State Actors and Foreign Policy Risk-Taking: The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq,” Journal of Kurdish Studies, October, 8:2, pp.339-369, 2020.