Kathryn Lauren (Overton) Roman Banda is a doctoral degree candidate in research methods and international relations. She holds a juris doctor (JD) degree from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law (LSAT score: 177). She also holds a master’s degree in Economics and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (GPA 4.03) from the University of New Mexico.

Kathryn’s Political Science scholarship focuses conflict studies, political violence, peacekeeping, and political economy. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Perspectives on Terrorism, Conflict Management and Peace Science, the Asian Journal of International Peacebuilding, and Human Rights Quarterly. Her doctoral dissertation, Nigeria and the greater Sahel: Modeling the terrorist response to economic shocks, employs a combination of economic theory and parametric statistics to explore the responses of violent political actors to macroeconomic changes.

In addition to her substantive contributions, Kathryn maintains an active methodological consulting practice. Her interdisciplinary social science publications employ methods such as benchmark sensitivity analyses, growth analysis modeling, hierarchical modeling, latent factor analysis, multiple imputation, parametric statistical models for discrete and continuous data, quasi-experimental models, structural equation models (SEM), and structural break models. A complete list of her publications is available on Google Scholar.

Kathryn’s research and training have been supported by competitive funding from a range of institutions. These awards include a Dean’s recruitment scholarship from Arizona State University, fellowships and travel grants from the University of New Mexico, support from the National Science Foundation, and a Janet-Box Steffensmeier Scholarship from the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) program, among others. Outside of academia, Kathryn speaks conversational French, regularly competes in endurance athletic events, and enjoys volunteering abroad.