Biography

Paola Solimena is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Previously, she was a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. She studies international security, political psychology, and international relations theory, focusing on how perception drives conflict escalation and de-escalation between states. Her doctoral thesis, Theories of Mind in International Relations: Why Individuals’ Inferences About States’ Motives Vary, jointly won the Dasturzada Dr Jal Pavry Memorial Prize from the University of Oxford.

Paola received her D.Phil (Ph.D.) in International Relations from the University of Oxford, where she was funded by University College and the UK Social and Economic Research Council. She also holds an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a B.A. in International Politics and History from Jacobs University Bremen in Germany.