Fields: Historical Sociology; Quantitative History; Economic History; Political Psychology; Globalization Studies
Areas of expertise: Ukraine and Eastern Europe; Post-Soviet Studies; Data-Driven Research; GIS and Spatial Analysis; R Programming; Pre-Industrial Market Systems (Global and Local); Analysis of Historical Epidemics; Measurement of Authoritarian Attitudes; Cross-Cultural Psychometrics; Quantitative and Mixed-Methods Research
Bio:
Taras Tsymbal is a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His interdisciplinary research bridges historical sociology, political psychology, and economic history, with a focus on globalization, market integration, and authoritarianism. Dr. Tsymbal’s work includes quantitative investigations of 18th- and 19th-century Ukrainian markets and epidemics, exploring the dynamics of pre-industrial economies and public health crises through spatial analysis and GIS tools. He has also contributed to cross-cultural psychometric studies of authoritarian attitudes, advancing the measurement of political psychology in post-Soviet contexts.
Prior to joining UCSB, Dr. Tsymbal served as Vice-Dean for Science and International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, where he led efforts to sustain academic operations during wartime and facilitated student exchanges across Europe. He has held research and teaching positions in Ukraine, Germany, and the United States, lecturing on topics such as globalization, Eastern Europe’s geopolitics, and the use of GIS in social sciences. His research has been supported by institutions such as the DAAD, Fulbright Program, and the Institute for Human Sciences.
Courses:
GLOBL 1 Global History, Culture, and Ideology
GLOBL 197E Ukraine in Global Perspective: History, Economy, and Society
GLOBL 197F Spatial Analysis and Visualization
GLOBL 292EM Geoeconomics and Geopolitics of Eastern Europe/post-Soviet Area