I am the Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and the director of its Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. I was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Harry Hurst, a Jazz musician and Paula Benson, an elementary school teacher. I studied first in the United States, and then went to England for a junior year abroad, at Lancaster University. I loved it so much that I transferred to Lancaster where, in 1971, I graduated with honors in Russian and Political Science. I also met there my future husband Adeed, and together we went to graduate school at the London School of Economics, where I received my  Ph.D. in 1975.

My first teaching position was at Southampton University, where I began teaching full time in 1973. One of my most interesting activities in England was when I served as the very first advisor to the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. They had just established a committee system, and the Soviet Union had just invaded Afghanistan, and it was very interesting to help organize the first committee hearings, and to write the first report of that committee, the conclusions of which were roundly ignored by Prime Minister Thatcher!

In 1981, our first daughter, Nadia was born—in England, the only member of the family with an EU passport.

The family then came to the United States in 1983. I was 8 months pregnant with my second child, Emile, and after he was born, I started a Rockefeller fellowship at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. The following year, I was a visiting professor at the Department of Politics in Princeton. From 1985-7, as an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, I was a member of the Policy Planning Staff and the Bureau of Political Military Affairs of the U.S. State Department (1985-7). It was a fascinating time because Gorbachev had just come to power, and Reagan was still President: the ‘evil empire’ mentality was only beginning to be challenged within the U.S. government and it was an amazing opportunity to be part of that process.

From 1985 to 2000, I was also a Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland and served as the Director of its Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies. My time at Maryland was a very active time for me professionally, and I was involved in many research and policy projects. My major publications include: Russia and the New States of Eurasia: The Politics of Upheaval, (Cambridge University Press, coauthored with Bruce Parrott, 1994); Eastern Europe, Gorbachev and Reform: The Great Challenge, (Cambridge University Press,1989, 2nd ed., 1990); The Kremlin and the Prague Spring, (California University Press, 1984); The Soviet Union in the Middle East: Politics and Perspectives, (Holmes and Meier for the Royal Institute for International Affairs, 1982); Soviet East-European Dilemmas: Coercion, Competition, and Consent, (Holmes and Meier for the Royal Institute for International Affairs, 1981); and Soviet Foreign Policy Toward Egypt, (Macmillan, 1979).

At Maryland, as director of the Russian Littoral Project, I was the series editor (with Bruce Parrott) of the 10-volume International Politics of Eurasia, published by M.E.Sharpe. I also edited several volumes in that series, including: Making of Foreign Policy in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, (coedited with Adeed Dawisha, 1995); The End of Empire? TheTransformation of the USSR in Comparative Perspective, (coedited with Bruce Parrott); and The International Dimension of Post Communist Transitions in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, (1997). Finally, I also coedited with Bruce Parrott a four-volume series, initially for the U.S. Department of State and then published by Cambridge University Press on Authoritarianism and Democratization in Post-communist Societies. The volumes are The Consolidation of Democracy in East Central Europe; Politics, Power and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe; Conflict, Cleavage and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus; and Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

At Miami, as director of the Havighurst Center, I have worked hard to establish new programs to enrich the undergraduate experience and to build on the existing curricular and faculty infrastructure. We have been fortunate to hire many new faculty to enhance our program, and also have received funding both from the Department of Education’s Title VI program and from the Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad program to expand our programs into Central Asia. You can see more about the wonderful Silk Road trip that 15 faculty from Miami took in summer 2006  here.

I have really enjoyed the interdiscipinary work that my time at Miami has allowed, and the renewed focus on undergraduate education. But I have continued to pursue my research agenda, serving as guest editor for a special issue of East European Politics and Society; participating in an extended debate on whether the USSR was reformable; doing a little diversion with Adeed working on Iraq prior to the American invasion; and researching and monitoring the Putin regime.

I have received Fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the British Council, and the Rockefeller Foundation. I was named a Distinguished Research Professor by the University of Maryland. In addition to Title VI and Fulbright-Hays, I have received funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Smith Richardson, the Social Science Research Council, Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council for Learned Societies and the State Department.