In this Roots of Reality Experiences episode, historian Ben Baumann talks with Dr. Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld about his research on the role of the internet in mobilizing protests under authoritarian regimes, what determines a successful protest, and the ways authoritarian governments try to stop protests.

(Zachary C. Steinert-Threlkeld is an assistant professor of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

His research interests are at the border of international and comparative politics, exploiting in particular vast social media data to study subnational conflict. His current research focuses on the mobilization of mass protest during the Arab Spring and Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests, as well as elite behavior and state repression in authoritarian regimes.

At Luskin, his teaching focuses on subnational conflict, statistics and advanced data analysis of various kinds, including the analysis of “big data.”

Steinert-Threlkeld’s work has appeared in the European Physical Review – Data Science, Political Analysis, World Politics and the American Political Science Review. He has also a forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press on using Twitter for social science research.)

Website- zacharyst.com

Twitter- twitter.com/zacharyst

(The memories, comments, and viewpoints shared by guests in the interviews do not represent the viewpoints of, or speak for Roots of Reality)