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 comparative religions, global politics, and world history. In addition to his role as an instructor, Dr. Saunders is also Chair of the Science, Technology and Society (STS) program, the largest baccalaureate program in the School of Arts and Sciences at Farmingdale. 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 information and communications technologies (ICTs), mass media, and popular culture on national identity, geopolitics, and international relations.
Dr. Saunders' articles have appeared in Progress in Human Geography, 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). His currently working on new manuscript titled Brand New Eurasia: Geographical Imagination, National Identity, and the Post-Soviet Realm, which explores the tension between Western media representations of the former Soviet republics and their own attempts at "nation branding."
Dr. Saunders was recently appointed Project Co-Director of "A Network for Understanding the New Europe" at Farmingdale State College, an international program sponsored by New York University's Center for Global Affairs and the Faculty Resource Network.
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Biography
Recent Publications
"Pagan Places: Towards a Religiogeography of Neopaganism"
Progress in Human Geography (pre-print online publication, January 18, 2013)
"Hungry Lands: Conquest, Cannibalism, and the Wendigo Spirit"
Undead and the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies, and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier, edited by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper (2012)
"Undead Spaces: Fear, Globalisation, and the Popular Geopolitics of Zombiism"
Geopolitics (Vol. 17, No. 1, 2012)
"Brand Interrupted: The Impact of Alternative Actors on Nation Branding in the Former Second World"
Branding Post-communist Nations: Marketizing National Identities in the “New” Europe, edited by Nadia Kaneva, Routledge (2011)
Research
Ongoing research projects, abstracts of peer-refereed articles, and links to books and other publications.
Presentations
Conference papers, public speeches, and other presentations.
Teaching
Pedagogical philosophy, a list of courses taught, an overview of online teaching methodologies, sample course content, etc.
Blog
Short essays and analytical pieces on topical issues associated with my research, scholarship, and teaching.
Photos
Photos, images, and other visual documents related to my research, scholarship, and teaching.