Volha Charnysh
Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Political Science
Office Hours by appointment
Legacies of violence; political economy; political behavior; Eastern Europe; Holocaust; WWII; ethnic politics; authoritarianism; politics and history; migration.
Biography
Volha Charnysh is the Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studies political attitudes and behavior in culturally diverse societies using micro-level historical data. She is particularly interested in the legacies of displacement, repression, and genocide. Volha's regional focus is Europe and Eurasia.
She is currently working on a book about the enduring political and economic consequences of one of the largest episodes of forced migration in history: post-WWII population transfers in Central and Eastern Europe. Her work has been published or is forthcoming at the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, World Politics, and European Journal of International Relations. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Historical Political Economy (JHPE) and Broadstreet Blog, a blog dedicated to interdisciplinary research in historical political economy. Volha received her PhD in Government from Harvard University in 2017.
Publications
Charnysh, V. 2022. "Explaining out-group bias in weak states: religion and legibility in the 1891/92 Russian famine." World Politics, forthcoming.
Charnysh, V., L. Peisakhin. 2021. "The Role of Communities in the Transmission of Political Values." The British Journal of Political Science 52 (1): 238-58.
Charnysh, V. 2019. “Diversity, Institutions, and Economic Development: Post-WWII Displacement in Poland.” American Political Science Review, 113 (12): 423-441.
Charnysh, V., E. Finkel. 2017. "The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence." American Political Science Review 111 (4): 801-818.
Charnysh, V., S. Markus. 2017. "The Flexible Few: Oligarchs and Wealth Defense in Developing Democracies." Comparative Political Studies 50 (12): 1632–1665
A complete list of Volha's research can be found here.
Teaching
17.506. Ethnic Politics
17.591. Research Seminar in Applied International Studies
17.S951 Historical Political Economy (Link to Stellar)
News
Biography
Volha Charnysh is the Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studies political attitudes and behavior in culturally diverse societies using micro-level historical data. She is particularly interested in the legacies of displacement, repression, and genocide. Volha's regional focus is Europe and Eurasia.
She is currently working on a book about the enduring political and economic consequences of one of the largest episodes of forced migration in history: post-WWII population transfers in Central and Eastern Europe. Her work has been published or is forthcoming at the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, World Politics, and European Journal of International Relations. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Historical Political Economy (JHPE) and Broadstreet Blog, a blog dedicated to interdisciplinary research in historical political economy. Volha received her PhD in Government from Harvard University in 2017.
Publications
Charnysh, V. 2022. "Explaining out-group bias in weak states: religion and legibility in the 1891/92 Russian famine." World Politics, forthcoming.
Charnysh, V., L. Peisakhin. 2021. "The Role of Communities in the Transmission of Political Values." The British Journal of Political Science 52 (1): 238-58.
Charnysh, V. 2019. “Diversity, Institutions, and Economic Development: Post-WWII Displacement in Poland.” American Political Science Review, 113 (12): 423-441.
Charnysh, V., E. Finkel. 2017. "The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence." American Political Science Review 111 (4): 801-818.
Charnysh, V., S. Markus. 2017. "The Flexible Few: Oligarchs and Wealth Defense in Developing Democracies." Comparative Political Studies 50 (12): 1632–1665
A complete list of Volha's research can be found here.
Teaching
17.506. Ethnic Politics
17.591. Research Seminar in Applied International Studies
17.S951 Historical Political Economy (Link to Stellar)