Former Kellogg PhD Fellow Kristina Hook (PhD ‘20) and Faculty Fellow Karrie Koesel recently received a United States Department of Defense Minerva Grant to analyze the Russian government's online influence operations. 
Grants such as this, through the Minerva Research Initiative aim to support university-based research projects that seek to improve our understanding of security in a broad context. The Department of Defense seeks to better understand social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape different regions of the world that are of strategic importance to the United States.
The Russian government’s online influence operations have been at the forefront of interest for many years now. Hook’s expertise in mass atrocity prevention, emerging technologies, and disinformation, alongside Koesel, who maintains a specialization in the study of contemporary Russian politics and authoritarianism are well suited to the pursuit of this study.
Hook now works as a professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development. She is a scholar-practitioner specializing in mass atrocity prevention and is considered an expert on the Russia-Ukraine war. Koesel is an associate professor of political science who has been a Kellogg faculty fellow since 2015.