To help offset the departure of two permanent contributors, we would like to welcome a few extra additions to our guest blogging pool.

Burcu Ayten Bayram is Assistant Professor at University of Texas-Arlington, specializing in international organizations, political psychology, identities and global justice. She works with quantitative methods including survey and experimental methods. Her current research project examines when and why decision-makers develop a sense of obligation towards international law and how this fidelity to law shapes their compliance preferences. When not researching, Burcu travels widely, composes music and short fiction, and enjoys yoga and weight-lifting.

Laura Seay, formerly at Morehouse College is now Assistant Professor at Colby College and works on African politics, post-conflict development and security. Her current book project evaluates the role of civil society organizations in providing health care and education in response to the Congolese state’s weakness in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri. She blogs at TexasinAfrica, contributes to the Christian Science Monitor‘s African Monitor,The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy and tweets @texasinafrica.

Brandon Valeriano teaches at University of Glasgow and combines an interest in conventional security issues with both an eclectic set of other interests (cyber-conflict, biology and IR, pedagogy and pop culture, critical geography, race/ethnicity and international sports culture) and a wide-ranging facility with developing world area studies including Africa, Latin American and post-Soviet spaces. He has published widely in outlets ranging from International Interactions and International Studies Perspectives to Soccer and Society and Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies. In addition to serial guest posts at the Duck, he has contributed to Foreign Affairs and the New Atlanticist.  

Finally, in our ongoing efforts to increase diversity of content and inclusiveness at the Duck, I thought I’d take a moment to reiterate our interest in periodic guest posts from scholars with pithy, thoughtfully formed (yet professionally expressed) ideas to contribute [see our policies]. We are likeliest to approve guest posts on topics not already covered by our regular contributors.  Women, minorities, junior scholars and those based at non-North American institutions are especially encouraged to reach out. If you have an idea for a guest post, contact any of the permanent contributors. The best contact person is usually the person with substantive expertise similar to what you are proposing.