Farzaneh Hall
Email: hschapman@ou.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Hannah S. Chapman is the Theodore Romanoff Associate Professor of Russian Studies and an Associate Professor of International and Area Studies. Previously, she was a George F. Kennan Fellow at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Dr. Chapman is a scholar of comparative political behavior whose research centers on how ordinary people engage with politics in non-democracies. Her work focuses on authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, public opinion, and political communication with a particular focus on Russia and Central Asia.
Her book, Dialogue with the Dictator: Information Manipulation and Authoritarian Legitimation in Putin's Russia, examines the role of quasi-democratic participation mechanisms in reinforcing authoritarian regimes, and was published with Cambridge University Press in 2024. Her award-winning research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, and other leading journals.
Select academic publications:
“Authoritarian Information Gathering Amid Crisis” (with Sasha de Vogel and Lauren McCarthy). 2025. Comparative Politics 58 (1): 75-99.
“Elite Narratives and State Response to Kazakhstan’s Qandy Qantar Protests” (with Raushan Zhandayeva). 2025. Communist & Post-Communist Studies 58 (4): 184-198.
“Shocks to the System: Electoral Manipulation, Protests, and the Evolution of Political Trust in Russia.” 2025. Government & Opposition 60 (2): 496–516.
● Elizabeth Meehan Prize for best article published in Government & Opposition
“Public Opinion toward Russia’s War against Ukraine: Investigating Wartime Attitudes in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan” (with Raushan Zhandayeva). 2025. Post-Soviet Affairs 41 (1): 1-24.
“Leveraging Country Expertise: How Scholars in International Studies Can Support the Asylum Process” (with Rachel A. Schwartz). 2024. International Studies Perspectives 25 (4): 518–532.
“Under the Veil of Democracy: What do people mean when they say they support democracy?” (with Margaret Hanson, Valery Dzutsati, and Paul DeBell). 2024. Perspectives on Politics 22 (1): 97–115.
● Heinz I. Eulau Award for best article published in Perspectives on Politics
“Shoring Up Autocracy: Participatory Technologies and Regime Support in Putin's Russia." 2021. Comparative Political Studies 54 (8): 1459–1489.
● Best Conference Paper in Information Technology & Politics, American Political Science Association, 2017
“Foreign Media Broadcasts as a Tool of Soft Power: Agenda Setting and Issue Framing Effects of Russian News in Kyrgyzstan.” With Theodore P. Gerber. International Studies Quarterly 63 (3): 756–769.
“Xenophobia on the Rise? Temporal and Regional Trends in Xenophobic Attitudes in Russia.” With Kyle L. Marquardt, Yoshiko M. Herrera, and Theodore P. Gerber. Comparative Politics 50 (3): 381-394.
“To Know It is to Want More of It: The Intelligibility and Definition of Democracy, Support for Democratization, and Global City Residence in Russia.” With Theodore P. Gerber. 2017. Democratization 28 (3): 481-503.
Select public writing:
“Attitudes toward Russia’s War on Ukraine in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.” 2023. PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 867.
“What do people mean when they say they support democracy—and why should we care?” 2023. The Loop, ECPR’s Political Science Blog.
“All Fraud Is Not Created Equal: Recent Electoral Manipulation Practices are Less Likely to Incite Public Ire.” 2022. PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 766.
"The Destruction of Academic Freedom and Social Science in Russia." (with Theodore P. Gerber.) 2022. PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 766.
● Featured in Russia Matters.
“Thousands of Russians are protesting against the war with Ukraine. Putin’s not likely to listen.” 2022. The Monkey Cage [Washington Post]. March 1
