The ROLE Team
Benjamin Acosta is the Chief Data Officer at Arcturus Intelligence. His research foci include political violence and resistance, identity politics, and the use of data. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont and held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Political Science Department at The Ohio State University. He earned an M.A. in Middle East Studies from Ben-Gurion University and also studied at the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) at the American University of Beirut. Acosta’s scholarly work often combines large-n data analyses with network analyses, agent-based models, or ethnographic research. Acosta has published scholarly articles in the Journal of Politics, Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Cooperation and Conflict, the Middle East Journal, and Middle East Quarterly.
Reyko Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. Her research examines armed conflicts and international politics, strategies of rebel organizations, and international security. She is the author of The Wartime Origins of Democratization: Civil War, Rebel Governance, and Political Regimes (Cambridge University Press). Her current research focuses on rebel diplomacy and transnational social networks among rebel leaders. Her work has appeared in International Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, Ethnopolitics, and Journal of Peace Research, among others. Her research has been supported by the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University and the United States Institute of Peace. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, an MPA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a BA in government and economics from Cornell University.
Daniel Silverman is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research focuses on the dynamics of violent conflict, especially in the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. He is particularly interested in the psychological factors – including the biases and misperceptions – that drive conflicts, and how they can be mitigated or leveraged to promote peace. To date, his work is published or forthcoming in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Research, Security Studies, Political Research Quarterly, and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. Before arriving at CMU, he received his Ph.D. in political science at the Ohio State University and his BA in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. More detailed information is available on his website.
Research Assistants
A multi-lingual team of talented students from across several universities contributed to the construction of ROLE over a period of six years. We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals:
Samira Abunemeh
Sarah Ascol
Elizabeth Bodenman
Amor Chambers
Jure Erlic
Joel Jaffe
Denzel Johnson
Raaga Kalva
Joseph Karle
Sarah Knight
Casey Knott
Ariel Kwak
Camarah McLean
Michal Miller
Eli Mitrani
Amanda Rafael
Rahmon Ross
Ihsan Saleh
Nathan Seder
Elly Shein
Elizabeth Smith
James Summers
Leanne Sun
Prajay Tipre
Devon Vanstone
Xitai Wang
Andrea Winn