People Group Archives: Faculty

Dr. Autumn Perkey (Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs.  Her work focuses on the intersection between political psychology, foreign policy, cyber/psychological warfare, terrorism, and conflict processes. Within these areas, she has focused on the relationship between identity and emotions on impacting public […]

Dr. Steven Smallpage is a political scientist whose research focuses on public opinion, political psychology, and the dynamics of democratic citizenship. He studies how individuals form political beliefs, how trust and skepticism shape civic behavior, and how longstanding ideas influence contemporary political attitudes. His work combines empirical methods with the history of political thought. At […]

Jeff Dambly joined the faculty of the University of Central Florida in the fall of 2025. Before joining UCF as an instructor, he served in various roles at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over more than 12 years in the department. He finished his career at FDLE as a deputy general counsel, where he […]

Dr. Suman Acharya is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs (SPSIA) at the University of Central Florida. With a multidisciplinary background in environmental anthropology, forestry, and climate science, Dr. Acharya’s research examines the political dimensions of environmental change and security, multilevel governance, political ecology, and the intersections of power, […]

Mehmet Gurses (Ph.D. in Political Science, University of North Texas, 2007) is the Jalal Talabani endowed professor and director of Kurdish Studies at the University of Central Florida. His research interests include Kurdish politics, religion and politics, ethnic and religious conflict, post-civil war peacebuilding, and post-war democratization. He is the author of Anatomy of a […]

Dr. Yogesh Joshi is Indian Community Endowed Assistant Professor and Director, India Center. His research focuses on military technological diffusion among rising powers, conventional military and nuclear strategy, and alliance politics, with an empirical focus on India, South Asia and the Indo-Pacific.   Before joining UCF, Dr Joshi led the National Security and Foreign Policy […]

Alexander Jensen (Ph.D, University of Colorado, 2024) joined the faculty of the University of Central Florida in 2024. A specialist in American politics, his research focuses on public opinion and mass political behavior. Before arriving at UCF, Jensen was previously a visiting professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, and an instructor of record […]

PhD: Georgetown University; MPP: Harvard Kennedy School; BS: University of Iowa Research Interests:  Political Psychology; International and National Security; Leadership Dr. Kelsey L. Larsen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs (SPSIA), and the Associate Director of UCF’s Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence (IC-CAE). Her inter-disciplinary research explores the […]

Dr. Wilson’s research interests focus on comparative judicial politics and human rights in Latin America with a secondary interest in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. His research includes four books, two authored, two edited and has appeared in leading, peer-reviewed journals including Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Latin American Studies, Comparative Politics, the Journal of […]

Dr. Anca Turcu (Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas) is a comparativist who specializes in the political and electoral behavior of diasporas, populism, transnational repression, borders and migration studies, as well as AI governance. Her research articles have been published in The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Political Geography, Party Politics, Comparative European Politics, […]