He received a B.A. degree in Political Science, German and European Studies from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. He completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at Indiana University-Bloomington. His dissertation investigates the effect of ethnic political competition on local-level governance outcomes in societies after civil wars. Hulsey’s teaching interests include comparative politics broadly, with more specialized courses on state-building after civil wars, post-communism, ethnopolitics, the politics of the Balkans and of Eastern Europe, the politics of empire, the European Union, and comparative politics for teachers.