Rafael Oganesyan is the Director at the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). Prior to his current role, Rafael served as OUR’s Program Manager and helped create the multitude of research resources offered to students. His higher education career path began as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Graduate College, where he helped manage certificates and programs offered by the Grad Academy.

Rafael is a four-time UNLV alum, having received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Political Science (2008; 2010), a Master of Arts degree in Political Science (2014), and most recently a Ph.D. in Political Science (2019). His research interest includes voting behavior in developing democracies, specifically in the post-Soviet space. Rafael is the founder and director of the Armenian Election Study (2017; 2019; 2021), the first academically driven pre-election survey in the Republic of Armenia. To facilitate voting behavior surveys in the post-Soviet space, Rafael has secured grants from the University of Southern California (USC) and The Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal). His research has appeared in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties (JEPOP), French Politics, and Journal of Common Market Studies.