Professor Floros

When I entered Hood College in 1993, I wanted to join the FBI. During my junior year at Hood, I thought I wanted to be a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., advocating for human rights around the world. A lack of interest in becoming proficient with a firearm dissuaded me from the first career and disappointed hopes during an internship in DC ruled out the second. The only other thing I wanted to do was become a college professor, but my parents, both high school teachers, thought it was a bad idea. After "wandering in the desert" for five years, I finally decided to pursue graduate school to become a political science professor.

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I had no idea what I was doing when I applied to graduate school, and was extremely fortunate to be accepted into my "backup" program at the University of Pittsburgh. Six years later, I emerged with a PhD and an interest in civil wars fought in the post-World War II era. I spent four years at the University of Missouri, Columbia before transitioning to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2012.

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As a professor not on the tenure track, my focus at UIC has revolved around teaching and service.

• Courses I've taught

  • Introduction to International Relations​

  • Popular Culture and Politics

    • Politics of Harry Potter​

    • War on Film

  • United States Foreign Policy

  • United Nations and Other International Organizations

  • Civil Wars in a Global Context

• Select service activities

  • UIC Senate​

  • UIC United Faculty (Bargaining Committee, Committee on Political Education, Representative Assembly)

  • Dept. of Political Science (POLS)

    • Undergraduate Committee​

    • Advisory Committee

    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

 

I am also involved in sponsored research on civil war negotiations with Dr. Heather Elko McKibben, an Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Davis. Our current research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

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In addition to these professional activities, I also host The Politics Classroom, a podcast of UIC Radio. I can't say that I've always wanted my own radio show, but I enjoyed being interviewed by local media in Columbia, MO. Joking that "I have a face made for radio," I commented to a former student that I wanted my own radio show when I found out that she had one. She introduced me to the program director of UIC Radio, and the rest is history. I enjoy the opportunity to interview academics from around the country about the political issues facing the United States and the world, and I hope that students can use it as a resource to understand the background and context of pressing political issues.