Staff and Research Team

 

Prof. David Buckley
Director, Center for Asian Democracy

David Buckley is Associate Professor of Political Science, and Paul Weber Endowed Chair in Politics, Science & Religion at the University of Louisville, where he serves as the Interim Director of the Center for Asian Democracy. His research focuses on the comparative relationship between religion and democracy. His book, Faithful to Secularism: The Religious Politics of Democracy in Ireland, Senegal and the Philippines (Columbia University Press 2017), analyzes the emergence endurance of secular democracy in cases with politically active religious majorities. It received the International Studies Association’s 2018 Book Award for Religion and International Relations. He was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow (2016-17), serving as Senior Advisor in the Department of State’s Office of Religion in Global Affairs.

David is currently at work on two book manuscripts: one examining the changing place of religion in the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy, and a second documenting the role of grassroots religious institutions in responding to violence associated with Rodrigo Duterte’s “drug war” in the Philippines. His research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, APSA Centennial Center, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Notre Dame’s Global Religion Research Initiative, and the University of Gothenburg’s Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD). His work has appeared in leading journals of political science including the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and Comparative Politics, as well as media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Taha Rauf
Postdoctoral Fellow

Taha Rauf (Ph.D., University of Michigan) serves as the Center for Asian Democracy’s Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Rauf studies the divergent implications of historical religious institutions for long-run development and democratic performance. His research involves the use of census-level administrative data from multiple sources across decades to develop large observational village-level datasets for Sufi Khanaqahs in India. This allows for rigorous statistical analysis and causal inference with multiple placebo tests and instrumental variable analysis, illuminating the channels of persistence. In addition to quantitative methods, he employs multi-site and multi-method qualitative fieldwork, including archival research, participant observation, and in-depth interviews, to elaborate on the institutional differences in coordination mechanisms.

Jayeel Cornelio
Visiting Professor

Jayeel Cornelio is a Visiting Professor in the Center for Asian Democracy. He is on sabbatical from the Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines) where he is Professor of Development Studies and Francis E Reilly, SJ Professorial Chair. He has written extensively on youth, religion, and social change in the Philippines. Among his books include Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young People Reinterpreting Religion (2016), People's Christianity: Theological Sense and Sociological Significance (with Jose Mario Francisco, 2022), and the Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society (edited with François Gauthier, Tuomas Martikainen, Linda Woodhead, 2021). For his scholarship, he received the 2017 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology and was named among The Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM) in 2021.

While at CAD, Professor Cornelio will work on his new book project on religion and public life, paying attention to some of the most divisive issues in Philippine society: divorce, the war on drugs, gender equality, and the death penalty. He is also co-leading two projects, both funded by the British Academy. The first is a three-country study on the role of local faith actors in peacebuilding in Burundi, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. The second is the Religion and Public Life in the Philippines (RPLP) Mentoring Program. In partnership with Professor Emma Tomalin (Leeds), RPLP aims to equip a new generation of Filipino scholars who will advance the interdisciplinary study of the dynamic relationship between religion and public issues in Philippine society. Outside the academe, Professor Cornelio is a regular contributor to Rappler, one of the leading news websites in the Philippines.

Emily Rasmussen
Coordinator

Chaireth Jones
Administrative Associate

Taylor Martin
Graduate Research Assistant

Taylor Martin is a Political Science Graduate student focusing on democratization and social change. She will support the Center for Asian Democracy in various publications, conferences, workshops, visiting scholars' programs, and research projects.

William Wigginton
Graduate Research Assistant

William's main interests are international relations and United States national security. William will complete podcast editing, research assistance, and event/social media coordination.

 Tristian - undergrad research assistant CAD

Tristin Black
Undergraduate Research Assistant


Tristin Black is a senior at the University of Louisville majoring in political science and pan-African studies. Tristin is a Brown Fellow at the University of Louisville, and his research interests include US foreign policy and democracy in Asia. He has recently completed an internship with the United States Department of State.

Mika Tañales 
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Mikaella “Mika” Tañales is a junior at the University of Louisville majoring in Political Science and Finance, with a minor in Chinese. Mika’s research interests include politics in her native country, the Philippines, as well as United States national security. She has recently completed an internship with the United States Department of Justice.

  

Amanda Kleckner
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Amanda Kleckner is a political science major and a junior at UofL. At CAD, she works in research support for projects exploring elections and religion in the Philippines. She enjoys cooking, photography, and getting into political arguments with her family.

Lorena Gil Sanchez
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Lorena Gil Sanchez is a senior at the University of Louisville majoring in Political Science with a focus on International Relations and a minor in Asian Studies. She is also a Porter Scholar with research interests in South Korean and East Asian politics.