About

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan. My research focuses on the politics of religion, identity, and conflict in the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries.

My dissertation project combines text analysis, survey data, and qualitative interviews to investigate the political behaviour of religious authorities during periods of political crisis and conflict. I am grateful to the Global Islamic Studies Center, the Rackham Graduate School, and the American Political Science Association’s MENA Section for supporting my research.

Prior to arriving at Michigan, I graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in International Relations and Public Policy. I have also worked as a researcher at the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society and as a policy assistant at the House of Commons.

My CV can be viewed here and I can be reached at melshar@umich.edu.

Research

Working Papers

All papers in this section are available upon request

1. “Anonymous Attackers: An Alternative Logic to Credit-taking in Terrorism”

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Acts of terrorism left unclaimed have puzzled scholars in the study of terrorism and counterterrorism policymakers alike. The very idea to commit an act of terrorism, but not take credit for it runs contrary to the conventional wisdom of credit-taking and political communication in terrorism. Extant literature has understood terrorist groups as unitary actors, failing to account for inter-group variation and individual preferences. As a consequence, unclaimed terrorism, or attacks left unclaimed, present a dilemma to the rational model where acts of terrorism are understood to be a form of costly signaling. If such a costly form of 'signaling' is authorized by a group, how do so many attacks go unclaimed? This paper explores an alternative theoretical approach to answer the question, what explains the incidence of unclaimed or "anonymous" terrorism? I present an argument about the role of low-level members of terrorist organizations as central agents in the prevalence of attacks that are registered as unclaimed. Utilizing data from the Global Terrorism Database and the Minorities at Risk Organizational Behaviour dataset, I show that countries with less cohesive or weakly organized groups, on average, see a higher rate of unclaimed terrorism.

2. “War, Memory and Social Cohesion: The Intergenerational Legacy of Political Violence” – with Caroline Lindey

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How does political violence shape local attitudes towards social cohesion? Establishing peace in post-conflict settings is often tied to efforts towards reconciliation and justice for the victims and their families. In this paper, we study the long-term political consequences of the Bosnian war and genocide on attitudes towards ethnic harmony and trust among Bosnians today. Using biographical data on individuals killed between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia, we find that while violence reduces inter-ethnic trust and harmony attitudes, the effect of exposure to violence differs by generational cohorts, which we attribute to older generations' exposure to other violence, namely World War II. We further document evidence of differences in generational attitudes through qualitative interviews with Bosnians of different ages. Our study contributes to the growing literature on the legacy of political violence and the study of intergenerational reconciliation and memory transmission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

3. “Opportunistic Repression? Understanding the Relationship between Terrorism and Religious Regulation” – with Pauline Jones

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What is the relationship between terrorism and religious repression? Some argue that terrorism is a response to state repression in general and to religious repression in particular when it comes to religiously motivated terrorism such as Islamist terrorism. Others contend that state repression is a rational strategy for mitigating the threat of terrorism and relatedly, that religious repression is used to combat the threat of Islamist terrorism. Focusing on the motivations of state leaders in Muslim majority countries (MMCs), we ask whether the threat of terrorism is a smoke screen to justify increasing religious repression or a rational response to a real or perceived security threat. We employ multiple empirical tests utilizing new data on religious regulation from three newly independent MMCs that have experienced both exposure to terrorism and increasing levels of religious repression since 1991 – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. We argue that the relationship between terrorism and religious repression is dynamic. State leaders may initially impose religious restrictions to combat a real or perceived threat of terrorism, but they continue to increase religious regulation to bolster their regime. These findings contribute to our understanding of the repression-dissent nexus, lifecycle of religious regulations and alternative pathways to autocratic state building.

Work in Progress

“The Supply and Demand of Religious Messaging: Evidence from Social Media”
“The Political Economy of the American Mosque” – with Hasher Nisar
“Local Church Authority and the Holy Land Crusades”

Teaching

University of Michigan

Graduate Student Instructor:

Introduction to Comparative Politics, Winter 2025
Instructor: Brian Min

Introduction to American Politics, Fall 2024
Instructor: Kenneth Lowande

Graduate Teacher Certificate Program

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I am currently participating in the University of Michigan's Graduate Teacher Certificate (GTC) Program, coordinated by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT). As part of this program, I have: (1) Completed workshops on teaching and learning, (2) Participated in a student-led consultation and classroom observation of my teaching, (3) Begun a mentorship on college-level teaching. Please contact me for teaching materials.

University of Michigan – Mentorship

I have been privileged to participate in several mentorship programs at the University of Michigan:

Mentor, Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (2024–25, 2025–26)
Mentor, Summer Research Opportunity Program (2024, 2025)
Graduate Student Organizer, Eldersveld Emerging Scholars Conference (2023, 2025)