Robert A. Saunders, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Biography

Robert A. Saunders is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, Economics, and Politics at Farmingdale State College-SUNY, where he teaches courses on world religions, international affairs, and global 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 Russia and Central Asia, Europe, and the Muslim world. His research explores the impact of mass media on national identity, geopolitics, and international relations.

Dr. Saunders' articles have appeared in Nations and Nationalism, Slavic Review, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Global Media and Communication, Identities, Russia in Global Affairs, and Geopolitics, as well as other journals. He is an Associate Editor of the Globality Studies Journal.

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: The Internet, Minority Nationalism, and the Web of Identity (2010) and the co-author, with Vlad Strukov, of the Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation (2010).

For more information, including research, presentations, and teaching, visit my personal web site at boratologist.com.