Research and Executive Team

Who are we?

We include scholars with disciplinary homes in communication, psychology, and history. Our research team spans continents, including scholars at George Mason University, University of Amsterdam, and University of Baltimore.

Character Assassination and Rhetoric with Jennifer Keohane

Character Assassination History and Culture with Martijn Icks

CARP Co-Founders

  • Sergei Samoilenko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. He developed and held numerous workshops and webinars on strategic communication in the US and internationally. Sergei’s research focuses on issues in strategic communication, reputation management, and subversive campaigns in climate debates. 
  • Eric Shiraev is a Mason professor, researcher, and author. He is an author, co-author, and co-editor of numerous books and publications in the areas of international relations, government, political psychology, and cross-cultural studies. In his works, he develops a distinct multi-disciplinary approach to foreign policy and political behavior and emphasizes the role of cultural and identity factors in politics. 
  • Jennifer Keohane is an Associate Professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design at the University of Baltimore. She has a PhD in rhetoric from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote her dissertation about the feminist activism of American Communist women during the early Cold War. She's especially interested in red-baiting as a form of character assassination.
  • Martijn Icks is a Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam. His PhD thesis was published under the title The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor (2011). His current research interests include the visibility of Roman imperial power and character assassination from an historical perspective.

Research Affiliates

  • Andrew Armstrong is a lecturer in Global Education at George Mason University and board member of the American College Program at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His research combines political science, technology, and epistemology; with particular focus on the spread of misinformation in the public sphere. He is co-editor of the book series Character Assassination Through the Ages, and co-author on publications assessing the rise of digital propaganda.
  • Nancy Snow (Ph.D., American SIS) is a leading authority in public diplomacy (reputation, credibility, gender diplomacy) and propaganda studies. She was Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Information Agency during the Bill Clinton Administration. Snow is Professor Emeritus of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. A resident of Tokyo, Japan, she holds a distinguished professor appointment as Pax Mundi Professor of Public Diplomacy, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, the first such public diplomacy position in the country. Over her 25-year career, Dr. Snow has held two Fulbright Fellowships (Germany, Japan), a Social Science Research Council Abe Fellowship as well as a number of global visiting professor appointments in public diplomacy. Among her thirteen books are The Sage Handbook of Propaganda (with co-editors Paul Baines and Nicholas O’Shaughnessy); the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy (with Nicholas J. Cull); Japan’s Information War (Japanese/English versions); Propaganda, Inc. and Information War (Seven Stories Press); and Propaganda and American Democracy (LSU Press.

Interns

  •  Valentina Fala,  CARP Media Manager. She is a Communication and Public Relations student at George Mason University where she is also pursuing a double minor in Intelligence Studies and Linguistics. At CARP she is interning as the Media Manager in charge of press releases, media inventory and creation of promotional videos. Amongst her many interests and hobbies she is also part of various involvement groups at her university like the Mason chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), Comm Ambassadors, the Fourth Estate, the Hispanic Culture Review. She is expected to graduate next Spring 2025.