Tosin Salau
I am a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. My research encompasses civil conflict, armed group behavior and civilian agency during war.
My dissertation examines civilian strategic behavior in multiparty conflicts. My work demonstrates that civilians are not passive victims of conflict but strategic actors whose decisions fundamentally shape war dynamics. Civilians continuously update their beliefs about government responsiveness and rebel capacity, choosing from a menu of responses—disengagement, protest, collaboration, resistance—that feed back into armed group behavior and conflict trajectories. Through formal models, original data collection, and methodological innovations in network analysis and text processing, I reveal how civilian agency determines when conflicts escalate, how armed groups adapt their strategies, and whether violence spreads or subsides.
Building on my dissertation’s focus on civilian agency, my broader research program examines how different forms of violence shape civilian attitudes and how network dynamics influence conflict trajectories. The methodological tools I’ve developed enable me to ask new substantive questions about conflict processes.
In addition to my research, I am passionate about teaching and mentoring students across different levels of their academic journey. I have served as a teaching assistant for Methods classes leading workshops, and labs for first-year PhD and undergraduate students. Through my various teaching roles, I have mentored students in quantitative methods and research design, creating collaborative learning environments where students can develop technical competencies.
Research and Teaching Interests:
Intrastate Conflict, Political Violence, International Relations, Text Analysis, Africa
Website: bolanlesalau.com
CV: Tosin Salau
My dissertation examines civilian strategic behavior in multiparty conflicts. My work demonstrates that civilians are not passive victims of conflict but strategic actors whose decisions fundamentally shape war dynamics. Civilians continuously update their beliefs about government responsiveness and rebel capacity, choosing from a menu of responses—disengagement, protest, collaboration, resistance—that feed back into armed group behavior and conflict trajectories. Through formal models, original data collection, and methodological innovations in network analysis and text processing, I reveal how civilian agency determines when conflicts escalate, how armed groups adapt their strategies, and whether violence spreads or subsides.
Building on my dissertation’s focus on civilian agency, my broader research program examines how different forms of violence shape civilian attitudes and how network dynamics influence conflict trajectories. The methodological tools I’ve developed enable me to ask new substantive questions about conflict processes.
In addition to my research, I am passionate about teaching and mentoring students across different levels of their academic journey. I have served as a teaching assistant for Methods classes leading workshops, and labs for first-year PhD and undergraduate students. Through my various teaching roles, I have mentored students in quantitative methods and research design, creating collaborative learning environments where students can develop technical competencies.
Research and Teaching Interests:
Intrastate Conflict, Political Violence, International Relations, Text Analysis, Africa
Website: bolanlesalau.com
CV: Tosin Salau
