Matthew Charles Wilson

As the first member of my family to earn a college degree, I have ardently pursued graduate-level research at the Pennsylvania State University. My previous research has concerned political institutions and conflict, spurred in part by my personal experiences in combat.

My current research agenda aims at merging the research on civil war processes wlith theories of international conflict behavior and developing an empirical understanding of regime type. I hope to extend my latest research to examine how the domestic conflict propensity of authoritarian regimes affects their likelihood of engaging in international disputes. Specifically, military regimes face constant threats from domestic challengers. As a result of their instability they are more likely to exacerbate international tensions. They are, however, less capable of engaging opponents when domestic armed conflict levels are high. Studies frequently control for power capabilities of states, but they leave unacknowledged those soldiers who cannot fight. These are prominent in military regimes--officers who become legislators and executives cannot adhere to a consistent national defense objective. The methods and data coming out of this research offer substantial benefits for the field and for crisis monitoring systems. Developing this idea will constitute my Master's thesis and eventually my dissertation.

In the long-term, I aim to secure a university-level position involving a mix of research and teaching position. I am primarily interested in teaching on the subjects of quantitative methods, conflict studies, and political systems.From my firsthand experience with discrimination and financial setbacks in the educational setting, I realize the following: scientists who have diverse backgrounds and unique histories provide perspectives and insights which directly contribute to scientific progress.