Lauren Nyquist
  • Ph.D. Student

Biography

Lauren Nyquist is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at Texas A&M University. Her dissertation, Infrastructure as Power: The Enguri Hydropower Plant, Foreign Aid, and the Geopolitical Reshaping of the South Caucasus, develops an analysis of how infrastructural decay, donor-backed rehabilitation, and legal pluralism at the Enguri HPP reshape operational authority and embed external compliance regimes across the Georgia–Abkhazia border.

In 2023–24, she served as a Doctoral Research Associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Center for Global Security Research, where she examined climate-security linkages and transboundary water governance in South and Central Asia. Previously, her work on youth political mobilization and digital democracy in Ukraine investigated how social media enables civic engagement under conflict conditions.

Advisor: Dr. Kathleen O'Reilly

Research Interests

  • Infrastructural decay and governance
  • Transboundary water–energy security
  • Critical infrastructure
  • Climate change and energy transitions
  • Foreign aid and international development
  • Legal pluralism and sovereignty
  • Geospatial and policy analysis
  • Eastern Europe, South Caucasus, and Russia

Educational Background

  • Ph.D. Geography, Texas A&M University (2020 - Present)
  • B.A. Geography, The University of Texas at Austin (2019)
  • B.A. International Relations and Global Studies, The University of Texas at Austin (2019)

Awards & Honors

  • Graduate Research Fellowship, 2025-2026 (Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research)
  • Doctoral Student Research, Travel, and Professional Development Award, 2024 (Texas A&M University - College of Arts and Sciences)
  • Lechner Graduate Scholarship, 2020-2021 (Texas A&M University)

Selected Publications

  • Lauren Nyquist, Mary Neuburger, Maya Patel, Oksana Lutsyshyna, Matthew Orr, Matt Maldonado, Milena Djordjevic-Kisacanin, Abigail Kuchek. 2020. The Zelensky Phenomenon: Youth, Social Media and Political Engagement in Ukraine.Вісник Прикарпатського університету. Політологія / Прикарпатський національний університет імені Василя Стефаника. – Івано-Франківськ: Плай, Вип.14. 2020.С. 258-275.