Cian Stryker

Cian Stryker

Data Scientist

Premise Data Corporation

Biography

Cian Stryker is a skilled professional with a passion for leveraging data to address complex challenges at the intersection of foreign policy and technology. Currently working as a Data Scientist at Premise Data Corporation, Cian utilizes Python, SQL, and R to analyze and provide actionable insights to public sector clients. With a Master’s degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian studies from Harvard, his qualitative social science foundation complements his current quantitative focus. With professional proficiency in Russian and Persian (Farsi), Cian’s diverse skill set and language capabilities make him a valuable asset in navigating complex global landscapes.

Interests

  • Data Science
  • Foreign Policy
  • Central Asia
  • Russia
  • Iran
  • Statistical Modeling
  • Digital Surveillance

Education

  • MA in Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies, 2021

    Harvard University

  • BPhil in Political Science and Russian, Eastern European Studies, 2019

    University of Pittsburgh

Publications

Importing Chinese Surveillance Technology: Are Central Asian States on the Path to Digital Authoritarianism?

My Master’s Thesis I completed to earn my graduate degree in Regional Studies - Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Its focus is on how regime type, state-capacity, and regulatory environments affect the potential for developing digital surveillance capacity through cooperation with Chinese ICT companies.

Digital Silk Road and Surveillance Technology in Central Asia (Digital Silk Road in Central Asia: Present and Future)

I authored a chapter within this larger volume on the Digital Silk Road in Central Asia. My chapter is titled “Digital Silk Road and Surveillance Technology in Central Asia” and begins on page 17 of the report.

Introducing Caspiana: A Digital Toolbox for Students and Scholars of Central Asia and the South Caucasus

An article in Eurasianet that Nargis Kassenova and myself wrote to promote Caspiana, a website on Central Asia and the South Caucasus that I built during my time at Harvard University.

Budding Digital Authoritarianism in Central Asia

Small article for Harvard University’s Davis Center on the development of Digital Authoritarianism in Central Asia. This work is related to my MA thesis, but takes a more general approach to talking about the importation of surveillence technology and the role Chinese ICT companies play in spreading Digital Authoritarian tools.

Integration and Differentiation within the Russian-speaking Diaspora: Estonia and Kyrgyzstan

Using descriptive quantitative data and over 30 Russian interviews in Estonia and Kyrgyzstan, I analyze the levels of integration of both countries' Russian-speaking minorities. I argue that the separate levels of integration and different forms identification achieved by both communities suggest that political institutions largely affect integration, but economic climate dictates emigration and can mitigate detrimental effects from discriminatory political institutions.

Projects

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CASPIANA: Digital Toolbox for Students and Scholars of Central Asia and South Caucasus

CASPIANA is a website I created to facilitate research on the fascinating regions spreading east and west of the Caspian Sea. It is hosted by Harvard University’s Davis Center Program on Central Asia. In Caspiana you can find links to selected media sources, government portals, legislation databases, statistics, and academic resources to study eight countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Climate Change’s Effect on Central Asia

This was the final project for my “Spatial Models of Social Science” at Harvard University. This course functioned as an introduction to GIS software with a focus on ArcGIS Pro. I chose to dedicate my final project to studying Climate Change’s effect on Central Asia by using Modis NDVI satellite data.

China and the “Belt and Road Initiative”

This project and website were my final assignment for my GOV 1005 ‘Data’ class at Harvard University. In this project I analyze China’s use of foreign direct investment, especially any investment that is a part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

High Speed Citations in Oklahoma City between 2011-20016

As part of my GOV 1005 “Data” course, I created this GIS map of all high speed citations given in Oklahoma City between 2011 and 2016. I also created my first shinyapp to showcase my work.

Replication and extension of “Ethnic Riots and Prosocial Behavior: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan”

Anselm Hager, Krzysztof Krakowski, and Max Schaub find that exposure to ethnic violence negatively affects prosocial behavior within and across ethnic groups in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. In expanding upon their, work I demonstrate that on the contrary, ethnic violence can have a heterogenous treatment effect.

Predicting Intrastate Conflict Using Machine Learning

Compared to causal modeling, using Machine Learning techniques to predict violent civil conflict is nascent within the broader conflict literature. In this paper, Liz Masten and I run three Machine Learning models – OLS Regression, Ridge Regression, and Random Forest – on a dataset of our own making to predict instances of violent intrastate conflict.

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