Department of Political Science

Regina Smyth is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University.  Her primary research interest is in the dynamics of state-society relations in transitional and electoral authoritarian regimes. She has also has written extensively on political development in the Russian Federation, including her recent book Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability: Russia 2008–2020 (Cambridge University Press, 2020).  Her research, largely based on original data collection and analysis, has been funded by the National Science Foundation, International Research and Exchanges Board, US - Russia Foundation, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, the National Security Education Program, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Russian and East European Center, Ostrom Workshop, Department of Political Science, and College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University.  At IU she teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on comparative politics, protest movements, and Russian politics.  She received her PhD from Duke University in 1997.