Postdoctoral Associate in Organizational Behavior

Hrag Balian is a sociologist currently studying the dynamics of civil violence. His doctorate, conducted at Columbia University and completed in 2010, studied the network effects on violence during "the troubles" in Northern Ireland. His broader research interests include human violence and aggression, social network theory and method, analytical history, and computational and statistical modeling.

Achievements and Awards
Distinguished Dissertation, Columbia University, 2010 
The Charles Tilly Memorial Award for Excellence Among Graduate Students, 2009 
Mellon Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows Program at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), Columbia University, 2008 to 2010 
Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Doctoral Fellowship, Government of Canada, 2006 to 2010 
Paul Lazarsfeld Fellowship, Department of Sociology, Columbia University, 2006 to 2010

Selected Articles
"Containing Conflict or Instigating Unrest? A Test of the Effects of State Infrastructural Power on Civil Violence" (with M. Lange), Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol. 43, 314-333, 2008

"Power and the Fog of War: An Event History Analysis of State-Sponsored Mass Murder in the Context of Civil War, 1970-1999," Papers in Social Statistics, 2005

Working Papers
"An Honor-based Model of Armed Competition," under review at American Journal of Sociology

"Pathways to Violence: The Micro-Dynamics of Large-Scale Civil Conflict" (with P.S. Bearman), under review at American Journal of Sociology

"Mechanisms in Moments," under review at Sociological Methods and Research

"When the Action Is"

"Cross-cutting Networks and Commitment in Honor Societies"

Education
PhD Columbia University, 2010
MP Columbia University, 2008
MA McGill University, 2005
BA McGill University, 2004

Related Links

Hrag Balian's CV Hrag Balian's website