Dr. Brandon Bolte is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the School of Politics and International Affairs. Before joining UIS in 2023, he was a Peace Scholar Fellow with the United States Institute of Peace and Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Penn State University, where he received his PhD in 2022. Dr. Bolte’s teaches graduate and undergraduate courses about international relations, quantitative methods and applied statistics, culture and youth, and global conflict. His research on civil wars, international conflict, militia groups, and statistical methods have been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, MDPI Mathematics, and The R Journal.