Hi! My name is Anton Shirikov, and I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in Russian Politics at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2022. I employ experiments, surveys, and other methods to understand how authoritarian leaders use propaganda to maintain public support and undermine interest in independent media. My current project investigates the conditions under which citizens treat propaganda and misinformation critically and the tools that citizens rely on to detect false information. I also work on understanding the influence of Russian propaganda in the United States.

In other work, I study political polarization on social media, political elites and institutions in Russia and Ukraine, inter-ethnic trust in Kazakhstan, as well as the legacies of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

My analysis and commentary have appeared in The Washington Post, on PBS NewsHour, in The Financial Times, HuffingtonPost, USA Today, Politifact, Euronews, ABC Radio National (Australia), Press Gazette (UK), CBC, The Daily Dot, and on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Before graduate school, I worked as a journalist and an editor in Russian independent media, covering politics and technology.

I can be reached at shirikov at wisc dot edu. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google Scholar.