After 15 years of coaching high school speech and debate at public high schools in Mississippi and Colorado, Laura decided to leave the world of academic research to pursue her life long dream of working in secondary education. Invoking the educational philosophies of Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed 1970) and Audre Lorde (Teaching to Trangress: Education as the Practice of Freedom 1994), Laura is committed to issues of educational equity and social justice education.
Laura currently teaches 10th grade English and serves as an Assistant Debate Coach at Hattiesburg High School in Hattiesburg, MS. In this capacity, she helps foster a love of civil and civic discourse among high school students. She also served as a member of the MHSAA Speech & Debate Coordinating Committee in the Magnolia District of the National Speech and Debate Association. Prior, Laura lived in Clarksdale, MS teaching 11th and 12th grade ELA and serving as Director of Speech & Debate at West Tallahatchie High School in Webb, MS
Current passions focus on data and education policy, especially as it pertains to Title I schools in Mississippi with high numbers of English Language Learners (particularly native Spanish speakers). In this regard, Laura served as a Policy Fellow with Teach Plus Mississippi during the 2024-25 AY and served as a 2022 Teach for America corps member. Laura is also affiliated with the Mississippi Delta Film Academy - a two week summer program hosted at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, MS that teaches high school students to engage socio-political issues in the community through documentary filmmaking.
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Prior, Laura received her MA from the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies in the fields of International Relations and Comparative Politics. Originally admitted to the PhD program, she passed her comprehensive exams in IR and CP before leaving the program early to pursue a career in public education. As a PhD student, she served as a research fellow with the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security & Diplomacy. In this capacity, Laura served as a Research Assistant to Dr. Tricia Olsen's Corporations and Human Rights Database (CHRD) Project, and a Research Assistant to Dr. Marie Berry and Dr. Milli Lake's (London School of Economics) Women's Rights After War (WRAW) Project. She additionally served as a Production Editor for the Journal of Global Security Studies (JoGSS), and taught undergraduate courses as an adjunct instructor of Introduction to International Politics, Introduction to International Political Economy, and Research Methods.
Prior to the completion of her MA, Laura worked for Legal Aid of Arkansas where she represented indigent clients in domestic violence cases. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2008 with a BA in Political Science. She earned her JD from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 2013, where she served as Production Editor for the Journal of Islamic Law & Culture and Research Assistant to Professor Uche Ewelukwa, S.J.D. During her time at the University of Arkansas School of Law, Laura also worked with the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center to empower members of the local Hispanic and Marshallese communities to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions.
February 2013 panel discussion hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center analyzing the intersection between wage theft and human rights litigation in Northwest Arkansas
Past research interests focused broadly on the rule of law under non-democracies, with particular emphasis on legal global governance and non-state actors, judicial behavior under institutional instability, and judicial and quasi judicial remedies in post-conflict environments. Geographical focus is Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Conference Papers
“2 Legit 2 Quit? Civil Society Activism and Judicial Defection Against Autocratic Backsliding.”
Conference Paper presented at the Western Division of the International Studies Association, Annual Meeting 2017
Updated version presented at the Southern Political Science Association, Annual Meeting 2019
“Judges are Not Vulcans: Social Network Analysis and Judicial Behavior Under Non-Democracies”
Conference Paper presented at the (1) Southern Political Science Association, Annual Meeting 2019 and the (2) Western Political Science Association, Annual Meeting 2019
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Additional Publications
Avant, Deborah, Laura Siltanen Hosman, Kara Kingma, and Jason Pielemeier. 2016. "Creative Multilateralism: Workshop Report." Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.
Hosman, Laura Siltanen. 2008. “Mothers of Morality: An Analysis of Gender in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.” The Honors College, University of Southern Mississippi. [Senior Thesis]
Hosman, Laura Siltanen. 2006. “Taking the South: Grassroots Organizing in Conservative Regions.” In The Student Representative Organizing Guide, 2006-2007. Edited by Campus Progress, a division of The Center for American Progress.
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Laura currently lives in Hattiesburg, MS with her rescue pitbull Rudy. In her spare time, she enjoys running marathons, hiking, and gardening.