Meet the Team

Eric B. Shiraev: [email protected]

Eric Shiraev is a professor, researcher, author, and editor of more than twenty books on international relations, political psychology, comparative politics, and cross-cultural psychology. His multi-disciplinary approach emphasizes the role of culture and identity in politics and social life. His research into character assassination focuses on the use of political psychology to analyze history and international relations. His research interests also include psychological warfare and defenses against it, Russian and Eurasian politics, and psychological factors to explain political leaders.

Sergei A. Samoilenko: [email protected]

Sergei Samoilenko is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. His research focuses on issues in the fields of crisis communication, reputation management, public relations, and social conflict. He authored and co-authored several books and publications on disruption, transgression, and subversion.

Martijn Icks: [email protected]

Martijn Icks is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam. He studies character assassination and reputation management from a historical perspective. His main field of interest is the history of the Roman Empire, in particular the representation, visibility and accessibility of Roman imperial power. His publications include The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor (2011), Character Assassination throughout the Ages (2014, co-edited with Eric Shiraev) and Character Assassination and Reputation Management: Theory and Applications (2022, co-authored with Eric Shiraev, Jennifer Keohane and Sergei Samoilenko).

Jennie Keohane: [email protected]

Jennifer Keohane is Associate Professor in the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Baltimore. She has a PhD in rhetoric from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote her dissertation about the feminist activism of American Communist women during the early Cold War. She’s especially interested in red-baiting as a form of character assassination. Dr. Keohane is the author of Feminist Voices and Communist Rhetoric in Cold War America. The book explores how women affiliated with the Communist Party during the early Cold War sustained feminist activism during a repressive time period in U.S. history.

Research Affiliates

Edwina Hagen is a Dutch cultural historian, and Assistant Professor at the Free University of Amsterdam. She is an expert of the revolutionary period in the Netherlands (1780-1815). In a broader sense, her research explores (the historical problem of) individual agency, as evidenced by people’s changing practices, emotions and attitudes toward power and political authority. Her work highlights in- and exclusionary processes that are at play in the creation of political subjects, reinforced by religion (antipapism related to civic virtues and national identity) and changing cultural norms about gender and (political) emotions. Character assassination is particularly relevant to the period of Hagen’s research, because this phenomenon occurred especially in times of revolution.

Andrew Armstrong is a lecturer in Global Education at George Mason University and board member of the American College Program at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His research combines political science, technology, and epistemology; with particular focus on the spread of misinformation in the public sphere. He is co-editor of the book series Character Assassination Through the Ages, and co-author on publications assessing the rise of digital propaganda.

Interns and Supervisors

Valentina Fala, CARP Intern Supervisor. Valentina is a Communication and Public Relations student at George Mason University where she is also pursuing a double minor in Intelligence Studies and Linguistics. She started at CARP as a Videographer, became the Media Manager and is now the Intern Supervisor thanks to her passion and skills. Outside of CARP, she is involved in many student organizations at Mason making her network immense. She is the PR Chair for the Intelligence Community Network (ICN), Treasurer for Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), a member of Comm Ambassadors, a staff writer for the Fourth Estate, newsletter writer for the International Council on System Engineering (INCOSE), and a peer reviewer the Hispanic Culture Review. She is expected to graduate next Spring 2025 and is always looking for new internships and opportunities.

Laszlo Taba, Digital Archivist. Laszlo is an MA student at George Mason University studying history and focusing on modern Europe and Digital History. After a career in finance and information technology, he was inspired to pursue a PhD after completing a data ethics certification through the Center for Applied Data Ethics through the University of San Francisco, which introduced him to issues related to disinformation, bias, data collection, facial recognition, surveillance, and artificial intelligence. His goal now is to complete a PhD in history at GMU and become a researcher who specializes in the history of propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation. He is currently building an archive for CARP to support research into character assassination and reputation politics. 

Ella Krug, Public Relations Intern. Ella is a Communication and Public Relations student at George Mason University. As an intern, she assists in writing press releases and newsletters for CARP as well as being an active participant in podcast planning and other forms of media creation. After spending the summer of 2024 working with Afghan refugee youth, she is interested in pursuing a career that aligns with nonprofit organizations who aim to represent communities most at risk. Ella is expected to graduate from Mason next Spring 2025.

Sara Matthews, Media Intern. Sara is a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University, expecting to graduate in 2027. Her focus is on media creation and journalism, with a mass communications degree. She is the Vice President of Save the Children Action Network (SCAN) at VCU. She also works as a research assistant for dance and media technologies. In addition, she is an opinion writer for VCU’s official newspaper, The Commonwealth Times. Her writing focuses on feminism and social justice. She enjoys working with cameras. Her ideal career would be to produce documentaries or work as a video journalist.