Laurie Georges is a PhD candidate specializing in International Relations and Comparative Politics. Her dissertation examines systemic pressures to erase non-core identity groups in states, and how erasure perpetuates itself in the modern international system. Her broader research interests include ontological security, the construction of ignorance, nationalism and protracted conflict, particularly in the regions of the Middle East and the Caucasus. Prior to joining OSU, Laurie earned her BA at Sciences Po Paris after a year-exchange at the University of Oxford, and a Master in International Relations at the Graduate Institute of Geneva.