Adrienne LeBas Associate Professor SPA | Government
- Degrees
- PhD, Columbia University
BA, University of Florida - Bio
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Adrienne LeBas (PhD, Columbia University) joined the Department of Government in the fall of 2009. Prior to joining AU, LeBas was a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and Assistant Professor of Political Science and African Studies at Michigan State University. Her research interests include democratic institutions, political violence, and the rule of law. She is the author of the award-winning From Protest to Parties: Party-Building and Democratization in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2011) and articles in the American Political Science Review, the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Democracy, and elsewhere. LeBas also worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch in Zimbabwe, where she lived from 2002 to 2003.
Dr. LeBas's research has been supported by grants from the EGAP Metaketa program, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Department for International Development (UK), among others. During the 2015-2016 academic year, LeBas was a residential fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. She is currently working on her second solo-authored book, which investigates the reasons for persistent election violence in some democratizing countries. With Jessica Gottlieb of the University of Houston, she is also writing a book on taxation and contradictory logics of state-building in Lagos, Nigeria. In spring 2024, she is a visiting professor at Sciences Po's Centre de recherches internationales in Paris.
- See Also
- Personal website
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request. Explore all AU Faculty Experts in our media guide.
Teaching
Fall 2025
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GOVT-130 Comparative Politics
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GOVT-435 Political Violence & Civil War
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GOVT-898 Doctoral Continuing Enrollment
Spring 2026
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GOVT-130 Comparative Politics
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GOVT-130 Comparative Politics
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GOVT-130 Comparative Politics
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GOVT-695 Comp Politics Research Project
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GOVT-898 Doctoral Continuing Enrollment
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
Prior to joining AU, LeBas was a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
LeBas' book From Protest to Parties: Party-Building and Democratization in Africa was awarded the 2011 Best Book Award from the African Politics Conference Group. Read more »
LeBas recognized as a "New Voice" in the social sciences by the Social Science Research Council and by Edmond Keller, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California - Los Angeles.