Prof. Tesser joined the USMC Command and Staff College in July 2013.  Prior to this, she held academic affiliations in Poland, Germany, Finland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, and the U.S., in addition to affiliations with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Center for American Progress. 

Tesser's research lies at the intersection of international relations, comparative politics, and history.  Her early work analyzed the impact of international institutions' efforts to advance a cosmopolitan variant of liberalism in East-Central European societies lacking broad support for all of the liberal and border-effacing (and some border-tightening) reforms required for joining the European Union.  This research found that external pressure to bring minority rights in line with European norms, open up emerging markets for land and capital to EU nationals, and shift the EU’s outer Schengen border eastwards could heighten the political salience of national identity.

Her first book shows why EU enlargement may intensify nationalist politics.  "Ethnic Cleansing and the European Union" (Palgrave 2013) offers a multi-case analysis of a process unprecedented in scale:  the (re)integration through EU enlargement of areas that experienced relatively recent and large-scale forced migration based on ethnic, national, or religious identity.  The book compares the politics of ethnic remixing under EU expansion in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Cyprus.

Tesser's second book brings the vast body of recent historiography on modern empires to research on nationalism, state proliferation, and international order to offer a fresh look at why nation-states eventually replaced empires.  "Rethinking the End of Empire" (Stanford UP 2024) recovers the historical context during prominent pre-independence periods in the Americas, Balkans, Anatolia, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia that have been lost in studies operating at higher levels of abstraction.  Nuanced historiography shows that nationalism often existed more in the perceptions of external observers than of local activists and insurgents, actors who were seldom model democrats.

Tesser's work has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright Commission, MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the University of Chicago, among others.  She earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago in 2003, a decade after completing her B.A. in political science at Reed College.

Areas of Interest:
• Nationalism, State Formation, and International Order
• The Globalization of the Nation-State
• Forced Migration, Nation-Building and State-Building
• Ethnographic Approaches to Security Studies
• European Politics and Security
• Global History

Fellowships and Awards:
•  University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies Fellowship (2011)
•  Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Research Grant (2004, 2007)
•  University of Chicago Grodzins Prize Lectureship (2002)
•  SSRC Berlin Program Dissertation Fellowship (2001-2002)
•  ACLS East European Studies Program Dissertation Fellowship (2001-2002) (declined)
•  Institute for the Study of World Politics Dissertation Fellowship (2001-2002)
•  Council for the Advanced Study of Peace and International Cooperation Dissertation Fellowship  (MacArthur Foundation) (2000-2001)
•  Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (1999-2000)
•  Fulbright IIE/USIA Fellowship (1999-2000) (declined)
•  Andrew W. Mellon ‘First Year’ Dissertation Fellowship (1998)
•  German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship (1997)
•  Foreign Language Enhancement Program Scholarship (1997)
•  University of Chicago Fellowship (1995-1999)
Supervisors: Ronald Grigor Suny, John Mearsheimer, and Michael Geyer
Address: Washington, D.C,