Tahir Kilavuz is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, he received his BA and MA degrees in Istanbul, Turkey and studied in Syria and France for language training and exchange studies. His research interests include authoritarianism, regime change and democratization, political violence, survey analysis and the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) politics focusing on Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia. His dissertation focuses on the factors behind authoritarian persistence and democratization in the MENA region. In his broader research, he works on causes of coups d’état, political liberalization, protest participation and survey analysis in a cross-regional perspective.
