He got his master degree (cum laude) in Policy Analysis from the Technical University of Delft and his PhD degree (cum laude) in comparative politics from the Tilburg School of Politics and Public Administration, Tilburg University. He has been doing comparative, quantitative, interdisciplinary research and his focus is on the relation between societal culture and models of democracy. His expertise and interests are in cross-cultural studies, comparative politics, democratization, political institutions, public participation and civil protests. He has published in several peer-reviewed international journals. He is also a political analyst and activist on Iranian politics. He writes articles and op-eds for several prestigious Persian media outlets. He has published a book in Persian entitled ‘From Civil Disobedience to Civil Misobedience’.