Simmons College

Ausra Park received her MA in European Studies from the College of Europe and Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of South Carolina. She is a recipient of the German Marshall Fund of the United States Dissertation Research Fellowship, American Councils for International Education (ACTR/ACCELS) Advanced Research Fellowship, and other research grants.

Professor Park's primary research focuses on leaders and state foreign policymaking processes as well as leaders and their influences on political institutions that they are heading. Her teaching and research interests are centered on Baltic politics, U.S. and comparative foreign policies, political psychology, East European political developments, post-Communist politics, European Union studies, and democratization. She has published articles in European Security, Eastern European Quarterly, and Journal of Baltic Studies. She is currently preparing her doctoral dissertation for publication. Professor Park has lived, conducted research, and traveled extensively throughout Central, Eastern, and Western Europe.
Professor Park is also associated with the honors program, teaching Explosive Mix: When Ethnicity, Religion, and Nationalism Collide.