Politics at Whitman College

Other courses I teach with some regularity:
Politics 147: International Politics
Politics 258: Politics in Africa
Politics 259: Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion
Politics 338: North-South Relations
Politics 348: International Politics of Ethnic Conflict
Politics 367: African Political Thought
Politics 378: Transnationalism
Politics 497/98: Senior Thesis

Publications

“Understanding Democratic Survival and Democratic Failure in Africa: Insights from the Divergent Democratic Experiments in Benin and Congo (Brazzaville). John F. Clark, co-author. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 47, No. 3 (July 2005).

“Democratic Legitimacy in Benin: Institutions and Identity in a Regional Context,” in The Fate of Africa’s Democratic Experiments: Elites and Institutions in Comparative Perspective, ed. Leonardo Villalon and Peter VonDoepp. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).

"Transnational Flows, Legitimacy, and Syncretic Democracy in Benin," in Constructivist Comparative Politics: Theoretical Issues and Case Studies, ed. Daniel Green. (New York: M.E. Sharpe Publications, 2002).

"Democratization and Domestic Insecurity: Navigating the Transition in Benin," in Comparative Politics, Vol. 33, No. 2 (January 2001).

"Testing Democracy in Benin: Experiments in Institutional Reform," in State, Conflict, and Democracy in Africa, ed. Richard Joseph (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1999).

"Legitimating Democracy in Benin: New Institutions and the Historical Problem of Economic Crisis" in L'Afrique Politique 1996 (Paris: Karthala, 1996).

Current Research

My research agenda addresses questions at the intersections of ethnicity, security, violence, and justice in Africa. The threads I am currently pursuing include, 1) the intellectual and institutional history of ethnic and religious ascription in population censuses in colonial and postcolonial Africa; 2) the relationship of census categories to territorial administration and electoral competition along ethnic and religious lines; and, 3) the vectors of violence characterizing censuses and elections.

Other areas of research interest include: U.S. - Africa security policy; Globalization and the child soldier.

Faculty-Student Research Awards

2005 Lewis B. Perry Research Award with Laura Hanson (‘07): “Census Categories, Ethnicity, and Electoral Institutions in Africa.” 2001 Lewis B. Perry Research Award with Anamarie Turlea (‘02): “African Legal Institutions and Ethnic Diversity.” 1998 Lewis B. Perry Research Award with Sashka Koleva (‘99): “Democratization and Inter-Ethnic Accommodation in Bulgaria (Eastern Europe) and Benin (West Africa).” We presented a paper by the same name at the International Studies Association meetings in Washington, DC (February 1999).