Volha Charnysh

Volha Charnysh

Ford Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science

Office Hours by appointment

CV

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

Matias Giannoni: Rise of the right

Leda Zimmerman MIT Political Science

Frustrated workers are leading the backlash against democracy as the global economy shudders

First-ever Climate Grand Challenges recognizes 27 finalists

MIT News Office

The Climate Grand Challenges competition launched in July 2020 with the goal of mobilizing the entire MIT research community around transformative projects that have the potential to make major advances in solving the big problems that stand in the way of effective global climate response.

The aftermath of violence

Leda Zimmerman

Although Volha Charnysh initially distanced herself from her native land of Belarus, she has in recent years found reason to return to her Eastern European roots.

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

Matias Giannoni: Rise of the right

Leda Zimmerman MIT Political Science

Frustrated workers are leading the backlash against democracy as the global economy shudders

First-ever Climate Grand Challenges recognizes 27 finalists

MIT News Office

The Climate Grand Challenges competition launched in July 2020 with the goal of mobilizing the entire MIT research community around transformative projects that have the potential to make major advances in solving the big problems that stand in the way of effective global climate response.

The aftermath of violence

Leda Zimmerman

Although Volha Charnysh initially distanced herself from her native land of Belarus, she has in recent years found reason to return to her Eastern European roots.