PROFILE: Karrie Koesel

ELEVATE In Support of Good Ideas

Karrie Koesel is associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. She specializes in the study of contemporary Chinese and Russian politics, authoritarianism, and religion and politics. She is a fellow of the Nanovic, Kellogg, Liu, and Pulte Institutes, and the Institute for Educational Initiatives. When Karrie Koesel, associate professor of political science, joined the Notre

Dame faculty in 2015, she was already aware of the Nanovic Institute for European

Studies. As a masters student in political science, she came to know the Institute as a great intellectual home and inclusive environment for people working on Europe broadly, and a wonderful space for graduate students to interact with peers and faculty members. Koesel didn’t anticipate then that two decades later, she would be among

Nanovic’s most dedicated and integral faculty fellows.

Koesel has published widely in the area of contemporary Chinese and Russian politics, including her first book, Religion and Authoritarianism: Cooperation, Conflict, and the Consequences (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Soon after she arrived at Notre Dame in 2015, Koesel met A. James McAdams, a political science colleague with whom she shared many research interests. McAdams, then director of the Nanovic Institute, suggested that she apply to the Faculty Fellows program as a way to make connections with faculty members from a variety of disciplines who shared a common interest in Europe.

Since becoming a faculty fellow in the autumn of 2015, Koesel says that these personal and professional connections with scholars in a wide variety of fields – from law to sacred music – have informed her research and enriched her engagement with the Notre Dame community. She has formed connections through encounters at Nanovic lectures and events and through serving on various Nanovic committees, assisting the Institute with the awarding of student grants and the Laura Shannon Prize. It is through the generosity of Nanovic, Koesel says, that this rich, interdisciplinary community can come together.

For Koesel, the Nanovic Institute elevates research and academic visibility by simply supporting good ideas. “If you have a good idea,” she says, “they want to help you see that to fruition, whether that’s moving something forward, or bringing a speaker to campus, or engaging with students.” In March 2017, Nanovic supported the “Citizens and the State in Authoritarian Regimes” workshop (co-sponsored with the Kellogg and Liu institutes, and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts). This workshop was part of a multistage conference that Koesel organized with Valerie J. Bunce and Jessica C. Weiss, two colleagues at Cornell University. The project was designed to reunite scholars of the Soviet Union and Sinologists, two groups that, since the end of the Cold War, had gone in different directions intellectually after many years of mutually beneficial intellectual exchange. During three meetings at Cornell and Notre Dame, some twenty scholars came together to workshop papers and explore such questions as how Putin’s Russia might help us understand the politics of contemporary China. The project led to Citizens & the State in Authoritarian Regimes: Comparing China & Russia, published in 2021 and co-edited by Koesel, Bunce, and Weiss.

Koesel regards the conference as a high point in her recent scholarly endeavors: it established a model for how to think about Europe’s borders and Europe in connection with other regions and countries. Koesel says that the perspectives and discussions that first emerged at the 2017 conference continue to inform her own research on autocratic trends in contemporary Russia. The Nanovic Institute is also providing Koesel with research grant support as she works on her next book project, Learning to Be Loyal: Political Education in Authoritarian Regimes.

In addition to these scholarly outputs, Koesel regards the organization of the workshop as a model for how to execute events that bring academics together to explore new research questions and elevate their scholarship. For this, she credits the professionalism of the Nanovic staff – especially Operations Assistant Director Melanie Webb. The entire event, Koesel recalls, was welcoming, supportive, and extremely well run, from travel arrangements to catering, including a memorable dinner and walking tour at the Studebaker National Museum in downtown South Bend. As a relatively new faculty member, Koesel says she was especially appreciative of Nanovic’s support and guidance. For Nanovic, supporting such good ideas and elevating scholarly engagement and achievement are at the heart of its mission. ◆