Biography - Robert A Saunders

Robert A. Saunders is an adjunct instructor in the International Studies, Middle East, and Area Studies program. He is also an associate professor in the Department of History, Economics, and Politics at Farmingdale State College-SUNY, where he teaches courses on Islam, global politics, and world history. He holds a Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers University and degrees in History from Stony Brook University (M.A.) and the University of Florida (B.A.). His geographic areas of focus include Europe, Russia and Central Asia, and the Muslim world. His research explores the interplay between national identity, geopolitics, and international relations.

Dr. Saunders is one the founding editors of Digital Icons Studies in Russian, Eurasian, and Central European New Media. His articles have appeared in Nations and Nationalism, Slavic Review, Global Media and Communication, Identities, Russia in Global Affairs, Albanian Journal of Politics, East Asia, Transitions, and Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. He has also published chapters in edited volumes from Columbia University Press, Routledge, and other internationally-known imprints.

Based on his extensive work on Kazakhstan's feud with the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Harper's labeled him the 'world's leading Boratologist.' His 2008 book on the subject is entitled The Many Faces of Sacha Baron Cohen Politics, Parody, and the Battle over Borat. He is also the author of Ethnopolitics in Cyberspace (2010) and the Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation (2010).