PHILIP G.

ROESSLER

Margaret Hamilton Associate Professor Chancellors Hall, Room 334

Department of Government P.O. Box 8795
Director, Africa Research Center Williamsburg, VA
Co-Director, Digital Inclusion and Governance 23187-8795
(DIG) Lab [email protected]
William & Mary www.philiproessler.net

EDUCATION

University of Maryland, College Park, MD

PhD, Government and Politics, 2007

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

BA, Political Science with Honors, 2001

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA

Margaret Hamilton Associate Professor, Department of Government, 2017-Current
Assistant Professor, Department of Government, 2011-2017

Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Visiting Fellow of Practice, 2017-2018

Oxford University, Oxford, UK

Senior Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations, 2010-2011
Andrew Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Comparative Government, Department of Politics and
International Relations, 2007-2010

Stanford University, Stanford, California

Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford
University, 2006- 2007

P UBLICATIONS

Books
Roessler, Philip. Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War
Trap (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
*2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
*Winner of 2017 best book award from the American Political Science Association’s African Politics
Conference Group and best book award from the International Studies Association’s International
Security Studies Section.

Roessler, Philip, and Harry Verhoeven. Why Comrades Go to War: Liberation Politics and the Outbreak
of Africa’s Deadliest Conflict (Oxford University Press/Hurst Publishers, 2016).

1 ~ Updated August 2021

Peer-reviewed journal articles
Pengl, Yannick I., Philip Roessler, and Valeria Rueda. “Cash Crops, Print Technologies, and the
Politicization of Ethnicity in Africa,” American Political Science Review, FirstView.

Blair, Robert A., Robert Marty, and Philip Roessler. “Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power
Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century,” British Journal of Political Science,
FirstView.

Blair, Robert A., and Philip Roessler. “The Effects of Chinese Aid on State Legitimacy in Africa: Cross-
National and Sub-National Evidence from Surveys, Survey Experiments, and Behavioral Games,”
World Politics, 73, no. 2 (2021).
Mach, Katharine J., Caroline M. Kraan, W. Neil Adger, Halvard Buhaug, Marshall Burke, James D.
Fearon, Christopher B. Field, Cullen S. Hendrix, Jean-Francois Maystadt, John O’Loughlin, Philip
Roessler, Jürgen Scheffran, Kenneth A. Schultz, and Nina von Uexkull. “Directions for research on
climate and conflict," Earth’s Future 8, no. 7 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001532

Mach, Katharine J., W. Neil Adger, Halvard Buhaug, Marshall Burke, James D. Fearon, Christopher B.
Field, Cullen S. Hendrix, Caroline M. Kraan, Jean-Francois Maystadt, John O’Loughlin, Philip
Roessler, Jürgen Scheffran, Kenneth A. Schultz, and Nina von Uexkull. “Climate as a risk factor for
armed conflict," Nature 571, no. 7764 (2019): 193-197 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-
1300-6

Roessler, Philip, and David Ohls. “Self-Enforcing Powersharing in Weak States,” International
Organization, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Spring 2018): 423-454.
Beber, Bernd, Philip Roessler, and Alexandra Scacco. “Intergroup Violence and Political Attitudes: Evidence
from a Dividing Sudan,” The Journal of Politics 76, no. 03 (2014): 649-65.

Roessler, Philip. “The Enemy Within: Personal Rule, Coups and Civil War in Africa,” World Politics,
Vol . 63, No. 2 (April 2011): 300-346.
*Winner of Gregory Luebbert Award for best article in comparative politics in 2010 or 2011 from the
APSA-Comparative Politics section.

Howard, Marc Morjé, and Philip Roessler. “Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive
Authoritarian Regimes,” American Journal of Political Science 50, 2 (April 2006): 365–381.

Roessler, Philip. “Donor-Induced Democratization and the Privatization of State Violence in Kenya and
Rwanda,” Comparative Politics 37, 2 (January 2005): 207-227.

Under review and working papers

Roessler, Philip, Yannick I. Pengl, Kyle Sorlie Titlow, Robert Marty and Nicolas van de Walle. “The
Cash Crop Revolution, Colonialism and Economic Reorganization in Africa,” 2021. Revise and
Resubmit, World Development.

BenYishay, Ariel, Lisa Mueller, Katherine Nolan, and Philip Roessler, “Can
We Talk Our Way out of Development Problems? An Experimental Test of Multi-Stakeholder
Dialogues in Niger,” 2021. Revise and Resubmit, Development Policy Review.

Pengl, Yannick I., and Philip Roessler. Markets, States and Power: The Cash Crop Revolution,
Colonialism and the Making of Modern Africa, 2021. Book manuscript in progress.
Pengl, Yannick I., and Philip Roessler. “The Economic Basis of African Ruling Coalitions: Cash Crops,
Minerals, and Ethnic Representation.” 2021. Working paper.

2 ~ Updated August 2021

Blair, Robert A., Samantha Custer, and Philip Roessler. “A Global Analysis of Policymaker Support for
Competing Aid Regimes,” 2021. Working paper.

Roessler, Philip, Peter P. Carroll, Flora Myamba, Cornel Jahari, Blandina Kilama, and Daniel L. Nielson,
“The Economic Impact of Mobile Phone Ownership: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in
Tanzania,” 2021. Working paper.

Roessler, Philip, Peter P. Carroll, Flora Myamba, and Daniel L. Nielson. “The Limited Short-Term
Effects of Mobile Phone Ownership on Women’s Empowerment,” 2021. In progress.

Roessler, Philip, Peter P. Carroll, Flora Myamba, and Daniel L. Nielson. “Mobile Phone Churn Impedes
Financial Inclusion Among Women in Developing Markets: Evidence from a Field Experiment in
Tanzania,” 2020. In progress.

Briefings, policy reports and blog posts

Roessler, Philip, Peter P. Carroll, Flora Myamba, Cornel Jahari, Blandina Kilama, and Daniel L. Nielson,
“The Economic Impact of Mobile Phone Ownership: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in
Tanzania,” 2021. Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), Working Paper #2021-05.

“Roessler, Philip, Yannick I. Pengl, Kyle Sorlie Titlow, Robert Marty and Nicolas van de Walle.
“Extractive colonial economies and legacies of spatial inequality: Evidence from Africa,” Vox EU,
December 6, 2020.

Roessler, Philip, Yannick I. Pengl, Kyle Sorlie Titlow, Robert Marty and Nicolas van de Walle. “The
Cash Crop Revolution, Colonialism and Legacies of Spatial Inequality: Evidence from Africa,” 2020.
Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), Working Paper #2020-12.

“Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early 21st Century,” (with
Robert Blair and Robert Marty). 2019. AidData Working Paper #86. Williamsburg, VA: AidData.

“The Effectiveness of Sports Academies on Children’s Social and Cognitive Development: An Impact
Evaluation of the Monrovia Football Academy.” (with Suma Massaley, Carolyn Meyers, Aaron
Spitler and Henry Young). Africa Research Center at W&M, Working Paper, February 2019.

“The Effects of Chinese Aid on State Legitimacy in Africa: Cross-National and Sub-National Evidence
from Surveys, Survey Experiments, and Behavioral Games,” (with Robert Blair). 2018. AidData
Working Paper #59. Williamsburg, VA: AidData.

“The Mobile Phone Revolution and Digital Inequality: Scope, Determinants and Consequences.” Report
for Pathways for Prosperity: Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development. 2018.

“How the African Union Got It Wrong on Zimbabwe,” AlJazeera, December 5, 2017. Available at
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/african-union-wrong-zimbabwe-171204125847859.html

“Did Congo’s Crisis Just Get a Lot Worse?” The Monkey Cage blog, Washington Post online, February
3, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/03/why-democracy-in-
congo-is-so-hard-to-achieve/?utm_term=.635b3d45badf

“China and the African State: Evidence from Surveys, Survey Experiments and Behavioral Games in
Liberia,” USAID, Research and Innovation Grants Working Papers Series, November 1, 2016.

3 ~ Updated August 2021

“Mobile Phones as a Catalyst for Development: Findings from a Pilot Study in Tanzania” (with Flora
Myamba and Daniel Nielson), Center for African Development at W&M, Working Paper, August
2015.

“Chinese Development Finance and the African State: A Capacity-Legitimacy Trade-Off?” First Tranche
blog, AidData.org, June 19, 2014. http://aiddata.org/blog/chinese-development-finance-and-the-
african-state-a-capacity-legitimacy-trade-off

“Why South Sudan Has Exploded in Violence,” The Monkey Cage blog, Washington Post online,
December 24, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2013/12/24/why-south-
sudan-has-exploded-in-violence/

“Chinese Development Finance and Strategies of Political (and Territorial) Survival in Sudan,” First
Tranche blog, AidData.org, May 8, 2013. http://aiddata.org/blog/chinese-development-finance-and-
strategies-of-political-and-territorial-survival-in-sudan

“Coping with Partition: Southerners in Khartoum After Separation.” Briefing Paper for United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), May 2012 (with Bernd Beber and Alex Scacco).

“The Summer of Fury: The War Inside Sudan’s Islamic Movement and Implications for US Policy,”
United States Institute of Peace, February 2012.

GRANTS AND F UNDING

Co-PI. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Development program grant, (with Rebecca Rouse,
Russell Toth and Tiffany Tsai), “Evaluating New Deployments of L1P-aligned Payments Systems,”
2020-2023, to Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), $3,463,200.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Call to Action (with Laiah Idelson of ETR),
“Catalyzing Cooperative Intra-Household Mobile Technology Use and Knowledge Sharing: A Pilot
Study in Malawi,” 2020-2022, $199,989.

Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William & Mary, Drapers’ Faculty Fellowship,
“The Cash Crop Revolution, Colonialism and the Making of Modern Africa,” 2020-2021, $10,000.

Annual Research Fund, Arts & Sciences, College of William & Mary, Grant, “Do Sport Academies
Cultivate Leaders? Preliminary Research for an Impact Evaluation of LEAD Africa,” 2019-2020,
$7,500.

Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William & Mary, Faculty Fellowship, “Mobile
Agricultural Insurance and Resiliency to Climate Change: A Pilot Study and New Research
Program,” 2019-2020, $8,000.

United States Department of Agriculture, “Mobile Phone Ownership and Civic Engagement: Evidence
from a Field Experiment in Tanzania,” October 2017-October 2018, $109,952.79.

Swiss National Science Foundation, International Short Visit to International Conflict Research Group at
ETH-Zurich, July-August 2017. 7,000 CHF.

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Innovations for Poverty Action, “Incentivizing Mobile Money as a Financial Savings Instrument among
Young Women in Tanzania,” (with Flora Myamba, Daniel Nielson, Joseph Price, and Wayne
Sandholtz) 2017-2019. $299,955.

National Science Foundation, Political Science Program, “The Origins and Consequences of Spatial
Inequality,” 2016-2018. $148,817

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “Improving Women's Access and Usage of Digital Financial Services,”
(with Flora Myamba and Daniel Nielson), 2015-2017. $795,199

Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations, the William & Mary, “The Causes and
Consequences of Spatial Inequality in Africa,” 2015-2016. $18,600

USAID Global Development Lab, “Participatory, Responsive Governance in Niger: Impact Evaluation”
(with Ariel BenYishay and Lisa Mueller). 2015-2017. $574,000

Reves Center for International Studies at the William & Mary, Faculty Fellowship, “Mobile Phone
Ownership and Women’s Empowerment: A Field Experiment in Tanzania,” 2015-2016, $9,000

Tigo Tanzania, “An Impact Evaluation of the Connected Women Program,” (with Flora Myamba), 2015-
2016. $30,000

Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations, the William & Mary, “Mobile Phone
Ownership and Women’s Empowerment: A Field Experiment,” 2014-2015. $30,000

USAID’s Democracy Fellows and Grants (DFG) program (with Robert Blair), “China and the African
State: Assessing the Effects of Chinese Investment and Development Projects on State Capacity and
Legitimacy in Sub-Saharan Africa,” 2014-2015. $85,000

Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Grant (with Harry Verhoeven), “When Comrades Go to War: Post-
liberation Movements, Elite Politics and the Internal Dynamics of Africa's Great War,” 2012-2015.
$65,000

The William & Mary, Faculty Summer Research Grant, 2014, 2013, 2012.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Sudan Office. “Sudan in Transition: A Panel Survey of
Individual Experiences of Partition.” (with Bernd Beber and Alex Scacco) , 2011-2012. $40,000

British Academy Research Development Award, “Identity, Citizenship and Trust in a Dividing State: The
Case of Sudan,” 2010-2011. £116,113

John Fell OUP Research Fund, Main Award for project “Darfur in Comparative Perspective: Regime
Crises, Political Exclusion and Civil War Onset in Africa,” 2007-2009. £19,160
UK Department for International Development, Pre-Bid Conference on Governance, Security and Justice
in Conflict-Affected Situations, March 2010. £10,000

John Fell OUP Research Fund, Small Grant for project, “The Effects of the Southern Sudan Independence
Referendum in Identity and Citizenship in Khartoum,” 2010. £7,500

John Fell OUP Research Fund, Main Award for project “Darfur in Comparative Perspective: Regime
Crises, Political Exclusion and Civil War Onset in Africa,” 2007-2009. £19,160

Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford
University, 2006- 2007.

5 ~ Updated August 2021

Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Intra-State Conflict Program, Belfer Center for Science and International
Affairs, Harvard University, 2006–2007 (declined).

Africanist Doctoral Candidate Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2006.

National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, 2005.

National Security Education Program (NSEP), David L. Boren Dissertation Fellowship, 2004-2005.

United States Institute of Peace, Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellowship, 2004-2005 (declined).

Doctoral Fellowship at the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, University of Maryland
(UMD), 2003-2004.

Research and Travel Grant by the Committee on Africa and the Americas, University of Maryland, 2002.

Graduate Fellowship at the University of Maryland, 2001-2002, 2004-2005.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

2019-2022, Reveley Interdisciplinary Faculty Fellowship, William & Mary, 2019-2022, Africa Rising?

2018 Plumeri Award, College of William & Mary

2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title for Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the
Coup-Civil War Trap
2017 Winner of best book award from the American Political Science Association’s African Politics
Conference Group and the International Studies Association’s International Security Studies Section
for Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap

2017 Finalist for the African Studies Association’s 2017 Melville J. Herskovits Prize for Ethnic Politics
and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap

2016 Margaret S. Glauber Faculty-Student Research Fellow, Charles Center, W&M

2012 Winner of Gregory Luebbert Award for best article in comparative politics in 2010 or 2011 from the
APSA-Comparative Politics section.

2012 Honorable Mention for Best Article in 2011 from the African Politics Conference Group. Presented
at the 2012 Meeting of the African Studies Association.

2006 Award with Marc Morjé Howard for the best paper presented at the previous APSA annual
convention, in the organized section on Comparative Democratization of the American Political
Science Association.

TEACHING

Freshman Seminar: Africa Rising? (co-taught with Professor Iyabo Obasanjo)

Senior Seminar: Order, Violence, Development and Democracy

Lecture course: Introduction to Comparative Politics

6 ~ Updated August 2021

Lecture and Study Away course: Mixed Methods for the Study of Conflict and Development

Senior seminar: State Building, Conflict and Development in Africa

Lecture course: Politics of Africa

Lecture course: Politics of Developing Countries

Senior seminar: Civil War

S ERVICE

American Political Science Association, Comparative Politics Section, Executive Committee

William & Mary, Department of Government, Associate Chair, 2019-current.

William & Mary, Faculty Compensation Board, 2021-current.

William & Mary, Department of Government, Merit Committee, 2016-2020.

William & Mary, Department of Government, Diversity Committee, 2016-2017.

William & Mary, Department of Government, International and Comparative Development Search
Committee, 2016.

Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), lecturer and faculty mentor, Williamsburg, VA 2014-2016.

US State Department, Diplomacy Lab, Faculty Mentor, “Social Media Use in Africa,” Spring 2016.

William & Mary, Reves Center for International Studies Faculty Fellowship Selection Committee, 2016.

William & Mary, Department of Government, Comparative Politics Search Committee, 2015.

US State Department, Diplomacy Lab, Faculty Mentor, “Sudan and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance
Dam (GERD): Political, Social, and Economic Costs and Benefits,” Fall 2014.

Guest Lecturer, Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC), AFRICOM elective, Norfolk, VA 2013-2014.

William & Mary, Department of Government, International Relations Search Committee, 2013.

Chair, Gregory Luebbert Award Committee for best article in comparative politics in 2011 or 2012 from
the APSA-Comparative Politics section.

Consultant, United States Institute of Peace, 2012-2013.

African Politics Conference Group, Best Article Committee, 2011.

Charles Center, William & Mary Internal Reviewer, 2011-present.

Briefings to Office of U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, 2010-2012.

Briefing to Conflict Research Group, Foreign Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom, June 2010.

7 ~ Updated August 2021

Field Analyst in Sudan, International Crisis Group, February 2005-April 2006.

Research Assistant/Consultant, International Crisis Group, Washington, D.C., Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe,
2001-2003.

CONFERENCE P RESENTATIONS AND I NVITED TALKS

“A Global Analysis of Policymaker Support for Competing Aid Regimes” (with Robert A. Blair and
Samantha Custer).
• Research in Progress Seminar, Global Research Institute, William & Mary, June 23, 2021.

“Catalyzing Cooperative Intra-Household Mobile Technology Use and Knowledge Sharing: A Pilot
Study in Malawi.”
• Poster presentation, 2020 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Annual Meeting,
Oct 19-Oct 20, 2020.

“The Cash Crop Revolution, Colonialism and Legacies of Spatial Inequality: Evidence from Africa” (with
Yannick I. Pengl).
• Wageningen History Working Group, December 1, 2020.

“The Political Economy of Ethnicity” (with Valeria Rueda and Yannick I. Pengl)
• Leiden Workshop in Political Science, October 21, 2020.
• Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 29-
September 1, 2019.
• Keynote talk at Conference on Sustainable Development in Africa, Students for Africa and Sié
Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy, Josef Korbel School of
International Studie, University of Denver, April 26, 2019.
• Princeton University, Comparative Politics Colloquium, October 24, 2018.
• Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 30-
September 2, 2018.
• Working Group on African Political Economy, London School of Economics, March 23-24,
2018.

“Increasing Smallholder Farmers’ Resilience to Climate Change.”

• Presentation at Workshop on Mobile Agricultural Insurance and Resiliency to Climate Change,
Chuka Unversity, Chuka, Kenya, May 20, 2019.

“Chinese Aid, Soft Power, and Democratic Erosion in Africa.”

• Paper presented at the 2019 Yale Africa-China Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, May 15-17, 2019.

“Colonial Cash Crops and Political Power” (with Yannick I. Pengl)

• Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago,
April 4-7, 2019.
• Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 30
1-September 2, 2018.

“Dashed Expectations? Chinese Foreign Aid and Soft Power in Africa” (with Robert Blair and Robert
Marty)

8 ~ Updated August 2021

 • Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 30
1-September 2, 2018.

“Mobile Phone Ownership and the Uptake and Usage of Digital Financial Services by Women in an
Emerging Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Tanzania,” (with Peter Carroll, Cornel Jahari,
Blandina Kilama, Flora Myamba, Daniel Nielson)
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
October 27-October 30, 2019.
• Project launch, REPOA, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, December 13, 2018.
• Presentation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington, May 17, 2018.

“The Dual Legacy of Colonial Cash Crop Production: State Capacity, Resource Dependence, and the Risk
of Conflict,” (with Yannick I. Pengl).
• Oxford Conflict Working Group, Brasenose College, University of Oxford, May 1, 2018.
• Paper Presented at the Centre for Study of African Economies Annual Conference. Oxford
University, March 2018.
• Comparative Politics Workshop, Yale University, February 6, 2018.

“Mobile Phone Ownership and Civic Engagement: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Tanzania,” (with
Peter Carroll, Flora Myamba, and Dan Nielson).
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
December 10, 2018.
• Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Atlanta, Wed, Nov 28 to Sat, Dec 1, 2018.
• Comparative Politics Seminar, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, February 27, 2018.

Evaluation Workshop Tanzania Social Action Fund, January 24-26, 2018, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Expert Group Deliberation on Climate Change and Conflict, December 4-5, 2017, Stanford University

“Policing Constitutionalism: The African Union’s Anti-Coup Regime and Its Unintended Consequences.”
Presentation at Workshop on “Future of African Instability,” June 15-16th, 2017, Rift Valley Institute
in Nairobi.

Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap Book Talk
• William & Mary, February 9, 2017
• Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, November 8, 2017

Why Comrades Go to War (with Harry Verhoeven)

• National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, January 22, 2018
• African History & Politics Seminar, University of Oxford, October 10, 2016
• Royal African Society and SOAS, University of London, October 11, 2016
• Centre of Governance and Human Rights Events Series, October 12, 2016
• Institute of Development Policy and Management (IOB), University of Antwerp, October 14,
2016

“The Effects of Chinese Aid on State Legitimacy in Africa: Cross-National and Sub-National Evidence
from Surveys, Survey Experiments, and Behavioral Games,” (with Robert Blair).
• Institute for International Education, Washington, D.C., Thursday, July 28, 2016.
• CSAE Conference 2018: Economic Development in Africa, University of Oxford, March 20,
2018.

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“The Empty Panorama: The Colonial Origins of Spatial Inequality in Africa,” (with Yannick I. Pengl,
Kyle Titlow, Robert Marty and Nicolas van de Walle)
• Centre for Study of African Economies, University of Oxford, November 29, 2017
• Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, December 1-3, 2016.
• Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September
1-September 4, 2016.
• Comparative-Historical Social Sciences (CHSS) Workshop at Northwestern University, May 6,
2016.
• Comparative Politics of Colonialism, Workshop, at the Mershon Center for International Security
Studies, Ohio State University, April 29-April 30, 2016.
• Penn State University, Political Science Lecture Series, April 1, 2016.
• William and Mary International Development Seminar, March 25, 2016.

“Please Hold the Phone: The Effects of Mobile Ownership on Women’s Financial and General Welfare in
Tanzania,” (with Daniel Nielson). Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) 15, Rice University,
October 23-24, 2015.

“New Perspectives on Conflict, State-Building and Development in Africa.” Issues in African

Development Seminar Schedule, Institute for African Development, Cornell University, September
17, 2015.

“Please Hold the Phone: A Pilot Field Experiment on Mobile Technology and Women’s Welfare and
Research Designs for Phase 2 and Phase 3,” (with Daniel Nielson). Paper Presented at the Annual
Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, California, September 3-6,
2015.

“What’s Endogenous and Exogenous to Colonial Rule: Occupations, Investments and State-building in
Colonial Africa,” (with Nicolas van de Walle). Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science Association, San Francisco, California, September 3-6, 2015.

“The Societal Origins of Powersharing: Ethnic Geography, Threat Capabilities and Horizontal
Accountability in Weak States,” Colloquium, Center for Comparative and International Studies,
ETH-Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, February 13, 2015.

“Foreign Aid and State-Building: A Capacity-Legitimacy Trade-off?” Presentation at the Workshop on

“Foreign Aid, Effective and Legitimate Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood,” SFB700 and
AidData, Berlin, Germany, February 11, 2015.

“Ethnic Politics and the Coup-Civil War Trap: A New Perspective on State Failure in Africa.”
• German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Institute of African Affairs at the Hamburg,
Germany, February 9, 2015.
• Georgetown University School of Foreign Service-Qatar, Doha, Qatar, April 12, 2015.

“Mobile Phones and Women's Empowerment: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania.” Paper Presented
at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Indianapolis, IN, November 20-November
23, 2014.

“Ethnic Geography, Coups and Civil War: The Logic of Self-enforcing Powersharing in Africa.”
• African Studies Center brown-bag lunch presentation, Oxford University, November 12, 2014
• African Politics Seminar Series, London School of Economics, October 30, 2014.
• Guest Lecture, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, September 24, 2014.
• Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA),
Washington, D.C., August 28-August 31, 2014.

10 ~ Updated August 2021

 • Research Colloquium, Global Governance, Politics and Security Program (GGPS) at American
University's School of International Service (SIS), May 15, 2014.

“Ethnic Peace: Escaping the Coup-Civil War Trap in Africa.” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of
the International Studies Association, Toronto, Canada, March 26th - 29th, 2014.

“The Economic Geography of Colonialism and Regional Inequality in Africa: A Research Agenda.”
Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Baltimore, MD,
November 21-November 24, 2013.

“Africa’s Two Equilibriums: Power Distribution and the Coup-Civil War Trap.” Paper Presented at the
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, August 29, 2013-
September 1, 2013.

“Is Africa Escaping the Coup-Civil War Trap?” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest
Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 11-April 14, 2013.

“In the Shadow of the Coup D’état: The Politics of Civil War in Africa,” Presentation to the Program on
Order, Conflict and Violence, Yale University, January 29, 2013.

“Who Supports Partition? Violence and Political Attitudes in a Dividing Sudan.” Paper Presented at the
Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April 12, 2012-April 15,
2012; American Political Science Association, New Orleans, LA, August 31, 2012-September 4,
2012 and the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia, PA, November 29-
December 1, 2012.

“Coping with Partition: An Analysis of Southerners in Khartoum Before and After Separation,” UNHCR-
Khartoum, 31 May 2012 and to the University of Khartoum, 31 May 2012.

“Sudanese Perceptions of the Egyptian Revolution: Results from the Second Round of a Panel Survey,
Oct-Dec 2011,” Conference on Sudan-Egypt Dynamics, RAND, May 18, 2012.

“Irregular Regimes, First-Strike Capabilities, and Preemption: Revisiting the Conflict Trap,” Paper
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington,
August 31, 2011-September 4, 2011.

“Identity in Partition: New Survey Evidence from Sudan,” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington, August 31, 2011-September 4, 2011.

“Sudan’s Perfect Storm: Preventing State Collapse,” Workshop on Future Governance in the Two Sudans
in the Context of Regional and International Influences, US Department of State, August 25, 2011.

“Identity and Political Attitudes in a Dividing State: Preliminary Results from Round 1 of a Panel Survey
in Khartoum, Sudan,” USIP North Sudan Working Group, January 27, 2011.

“After Liberation: A Micro-Level Analysis of Elite (and Ethnic) Accommodation, Fragmentation and
Violence in South Sudan,” Ethnic Politics Workshop at George Washington University, October 15,
2010.

“The Enemy from Within: Civil War Politics in Africa,” African Studies Program and the Center for
Conflict Resolution, Georgetown University, October 13, 2010.

11 ~ Updated August 2021

“Belonging and Identity in Sudan on the Eve of the South’s Self-Determination Referendum,”
presentation at the African Studies Association-UK Biennial Conference 2010 in Oxford, UK.

“The Structure of Power and the Threshold of Contestation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes” (with
Marc Morjé Howard and Hesham Sallam), ” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Political Science Association, in Washington, D.C., September 2-5, 2009 and to the African Studies
Association-UK Biennial Conference 2010 in Oxford, UK.

“The Point of No Return: Kabila, Rwanda, and the Internal Dynamics of Africa’s Great War,” presented
at the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office, June 28, 2010, Cambridge University, May 25, 2010, and
School of Oriental and African Studies, March 16, 2011.

“State Building from the Bottom-Up,” presented at the UK Department for International Development,
May 4, 2010.

“Will the Global Financial Crisis Derail Africa's Transformation?” presented to 2010 St Anne's and
Queen's Colleges' PPE Conference at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, February 12, 2010.

“Ethnic Power Sharing, Coups and Civil War” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political
Science Association, in Toronto, Canada September 3-6, 2009 and to the African History and Politics
Seminar, University of Oxford, October 26, 2009.

"Darfur in Comparative Perspective: Regime Crises, Political Exclusion and Civil War in Africa,"
presentation delivered to the Sudan Programme at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford,
November 26, 2008 and at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington
D.C., June 26, 2007.

“Electoral Dominance in Authoritarian Regimes” (with Marc Morje Howard), presented at the Oxford
Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy Faculty Seminar in Comparative Politics,
November 21, 2008; Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, in Boston,
August 28-31, 2008.

“Warmaking and Peacemaking in Sudan” (with Sharath Srinivasan) presented at the African Studies
Seminar, University of Oxford, November 13, 2008.

“Failed Coups and Civil Wars,” presented at African Studies Center, University of Oxford, May 20, 2008.

“What are the Consequences of the Civil War on the Present Situation in Darfur?” invited talk at “Darfur,
Sudan and its Neighbours” conference, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Geneva, Switzerland, 12-
14 December 2007.

“Measuring and Analyzing Post-Cold War Political Regimes,” presented at the “Democratization by
Elections?” conference, University of Florida, November 30-December 1, 2007 and the Annual
Meeting of the American Political Science Association, in Chicago, August 30-September 2, 2007.

“Committing to War: Regime Centralization and Ethnic Exclusion in Africa” paper presented at 48th
Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Chicago, IL February 28, 2007.

"Committing to War: Political Exclusion and Indiscriminate Violence in Africa," presentation delivered at
Social Science Seminar sponsored by Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC),
Stanford University, February 22, 2007.

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“Neopatrimonialism and Political Rule in Africa,” presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the African
Studies Association in San Francisco on November 19, 2006.

“Clientelism, Repression and Civil War,” DC Area Workshop in Contentious Politics, College Park,
Maryland, April 26, 2006.

“Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes” (with Marc Morjé Howard),
presented at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of
Maryland, November 3, 2004.

“Empowering the Lame Leviathan: Globalization and the State in Africa,” Paper Presented at Annual
Meeting of International Studies Association, Montreal, Quebec, March 2004.

“Donor-Induced Democratization and the Privatization of State Violence in Kenya and Rwanda,”
presented at DC Area Workshop in Contentious Politics, College Park, Maryland, 2003.

F IELD RESEARCH AND P OLICY ENGAGEMENT

Angola, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra
Leone, Sudan (Khartoum, Darfur, eastern Sudan, southern Sudan), Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe

13 ~ Updated August 2021