Vita: Tasnia Symoom earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Kentucky in 2025. Her research examines how political institutions, humanitarian governance, and global political economy shape gender inequality, migration, and responses to violence against women. She studies how foreign investment, political institutions, and displacement influence women’s economic participation and access to justice, with a particular focus on Indo-Pacific countries and refugee contexts. Her work combines survey experiments, mixed-methods field research, and cross-national political economy analysis. Her research has been published in The Social Science Journal and Violence Against Women. She has taught courses in comparative politics, political analysis, and democracy and human rights at the University of Kentucky, Eastern Illinois University, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

Teaching Interests: Comparative politics, International relations, Gender and politics, Democracy and human rights, South Asian politics, Comparative Political economy

Books in Progress: Selective Solidarity and Violence Against Women (under review at Oxford University Press); Sinophobia and the Liberal Order (co-authored with Horace Bartilow)

Honors and Fellowships: Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellowship, Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University (2025–26); Ashley T. Judd Distinguished Graduate Fellowship (2021); Research Fellowship, Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women (2023); Nominee, University of Kentucky Best Teaching Assistant Award (2025); IKEA Netherland Merit-based Scholarship (2011-2015)