He has interests in Russian society, economic sociology, political sociology and social network analysis. He has recently published articles on these topics in journals, including Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Sociological Forum, Europe-Asia Studies and Studies in Comparative International Development. He teaches courses on social movements, economic sociology and social networks that draw heavily on material from the post-communist world. Dr. Buck earned his undergraduate degree in Russian language and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate degrees in sociology at Cornell and Columbia Universities. He studied at Moscow State University as an exchange student in the spring of 1991 and has worked and conducted research for years in Russia since then.