Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Austin Knuppe to Lead the Heravi Peace Institute
Professor Austin Knuppe
Austin Knuppe is an assistant professor of political science at Utah State University. Prior to Utah State, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. He is a Newbigin Fellow through a joint initiative of the Carver Project and InterFaith America in AY 2024-25. Austin currently serves on the board of the Heravi Peace Institute and will assume the role of Director in May 2025.
He received his Ph.D. in political science from The Ohio State University in 2019. His research interests include civilian survival during wartime, Middle East politics, and the role of religion in international politics.
His first book, Surviving the Islamic State: Contention, Cooperation, and Neutrality in Wartime Iraq (Columbia University Press, 2024), explores how ordinary Iraqis survived Islamic State control of their communities between 2014 and 2018. He argues that individuals survive conflict by drawing on repertoires—consisting of practices, tools, organized routines, symbols, and rhetorical strategies—to navigate violent situations. He finds that Iraqis across conflict-affected communities relied on heuristics—or cognitive shortcuts—to detect and respond to insurgent threats. Local residents considered the identity and behavior of insurgents, as well as the relative risks of accommodating Islamic State governance.
When he’s not in the classroom or conducting research, Austin enjoys biking, hiking, and cooking Middle Eastern cuisine. He and his wife, Amy, love spending time outdoors, camping, kayaking, and exploring with their two young sons.
Get a hold of Dr. Knuppe at austin.knuppe@usu.edu