Dr. Irina Soboleva is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at Duke Kunshan, Duke University’s new campus just outside Shanghai. Her research lies at the intersection of comparative politics, behavioral science, and experimental psychology with a focus on civic participation at the local level. Specifically, she studies how individual self-evaluation affects nascent political ambition and civic cooperation in developing democracies. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Psychology from Columbia University in New York.