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Hey there! I am a graduating student at the University of Toronto Mississauga. My programs of study include Political Science, Historical Studies, & Global Perspectives. My interests and works cover a number of topics within International Relations and contemporary Atlantic History. This includes but is not limited to conflict studies, democratic studies, American history and culture, political theory, and comparative foreign policy.
My current project is utilizing multivariate data sets such as the Cross-National Time Series, Varieties of Democracy, and others to more effectively operationalize political instability in empirical studies of civil war. This summer, I’m also working on a couple of datasets this summer for some research I’ve been interested in that I wasn’t able to do during coursework. If you’re interested in looking or using any of the data, I have more info about them and their usage in the Datasets tab.
Outside of school, I enjoy reading (more politics & history books!), watching tv shows, skating, and watching hockey.
Education
Simon Fraser University | Burnaby, British Columbia
Masters of Arts in Political Science | Degree Expected 2027
University of Toronto | Toronto, Ontario
Honours Bachelors of Arts in Political Science | September 2022- June 2026
Affiliations
Co-founder & Editor (Comparative Politics, Book Reviews), UTM Undergraduate Journal of Political Science.
Research Publications
“Freed Bondage: How American Liberalism and Slavery Collided in Early American Politics.” UTM Undergraduate Journal of Political Science 1, no. 1 (2026): 1-9. (In Review).
Conferences
United we Stand, Divided we Drive: How Highways Served as Racial Mechanisms in 20th-Century American Life, Presenter at the 2025 Prandium Conference, Mississauga, April 7, 2025.
Projects
UNSCR Quiz Game
I made a game in which the user is presented with a UN Security Council resolution, and has to guess if the resolution passed, and how each P5 nation voted.
Foreign Aid-Voting Index (April 2026-Present)
This dataset trys to answer the question how does foreign aid influence state voting alignment with P5 members at the United Nations? The dataset comes with a couple of important variables, and also a series of secondary variables for improved testing. More information, alongside the dataset, can be found under the “Datasets” tab.
Compiled Democracy Index (March 2026 - Present)
A dataset that complies raw and scaled data from four major democracy indices. The first edition is made and can be found alongside all its suplementary information under the “Datasets” tab.
Contact
Email: cyrusgazdar@outlook.com