Hello! I am the MacArthur Hennessy Fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). I was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame where I also received my PhD in August 2024.

My research agenda centers around questions of international security and racism, with an emphasis on nuclear politics. My work considers these domains independently from each other and the linkages between them. My work on realism and racism has been published in Security Studies. A companion piece considering the relationship between racial hierarchy and the balance of power through the international thought of Merze Tate (the first black woman to receive a PhD in government from Harvard) is available here. 

In my book project, Racism among Nations: Geopolitical Competition and the Shifting Nature of Racial Hierarchy, I theorize the emergence of racial norms in the international system and how changing racial norms affect the inclusion of nonwhite powers into elite international clubs. 

I have long had an interest in carceral state politics and I am in the early stages of new research examining the intersection of the American carceral state and international politics. For an initial foray, see my working paper on political awareness of anti-immigrant, carceral state, and traditional ballot measures.

I have a BA in Political Science, Anthropology, and English from the University of Miami and an MA in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame. I was previously a Hans J. Morgenthau pre-doctoral fellow at Notre Dame's International Security Center and an APSA Diversity Fellow. 

I am a proud product of the Miami-Dade County Public School System. I am committed to helping my students grow personally and professionally in ways that I have been fortunate enough to receive as a first-generation, low-income student.

Contact me at bustama@stanford.edu