Social Media in the Former Soviet World

Havighurst Colloquia Series—Russian Media Strategies at Home and Abroad

Steven Lloyd Wilson is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno.
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He received his doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016. His dissertation, Information and Revolution, explored the effects of the Internet on authoritarian regimes, arguing that while the Internet has made mass mobilization easier than ever, its spread has also allowed savvy authoritarian regimes to become more stable than ever. His research focuses on cybersecurity, the Internet's various intersections with politics, and comparative democratization, particularly in the former Soviet world.

Wilson served as a research fellow at the Varieties of Democracy Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His work at V-Dem involved the design and construction of their online expert coding interface, which hosts millions of data points, from experts in every country in the world, in addition to research on patterns of democratization. He continues to serve as Project Manager of Computational Infrastructure for the V-Dem project.

Wilson has authored or coauthored several articles and regularly presents his work at international conferences. Most recently, he has published articles in Rationality and Society, Legislative Studies Quarterly, First Monday, and the Journal of European Public Policy.

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