Oliver Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. He was a postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University (2011-12) in the Woodrow Wilson School working with the Empirical Studies of Conflict project (and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University from 2010-11). His main research interests include the study of alternative conflict resolution and counterinsurgency strategies. His book project, “Civilian Autonomy in Civil War,” examines how civilian communities organize to protect themselves from wartime violence and received the Diskin Dissertation award honorable mention from the Latin American Studies Association. He identifies strategies civilians may use to influence armed groups and illustrates when these strategies are effective and when they may fail. To test his arguments, Kaplan conducted statistical analyses and fieldwork-based case studies of communities in Colombia that highlight the protective effects of village councils. He is currently working on additional projects on the link between land and conflict and post-conflict state consolidation processes. His research has been funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation and other grants and has been published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, and National Interest. Kaplan received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and completed his B.A. at UC San Diego.