The Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame University in Indiana in the United States appoints Dr. Lamin Keita as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Study of Democracy in Africa. Keita will commence the fellowship in August 2024. He will join a team of Political Scientists and experts to investigate and examine issues of the rapid decline of democracy and human rights in Africa. The Kellogg Institute for International Studies formed the African Governance Innovation Lab to address questions of governance and accountability on the continent from an interdisciplinary angle. In a more broadly perspective, it examines why and how has the decline of democracy become persistent in Africa. This brought the question whether we should look seriously at history, at localized governance, contemporary social movements, non-state institutions, philosophical traditions, contemporary policy-making, and opportunities within the fourth industrial revolution to find African innovations.
Lamin Keita recently graduated from one of the top nationally ranked and prestigious schools in the U.S., Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, with the highest honors as a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. Dr. Keita has obtained two of the highest and most outstanding and competitive Ph.D. dissertation fellowship awards for his research in West Africa. He is the first doctoral student at the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University to win both the Fulbright—Hays- Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (U.S. State Department of Education funded) and the Social Science Research Council-International Dissertation Research Fellowship (SSRC-IDRF) award for his dissertation project.
Dr. Keita’s doctoral research examines community violence and democratization in West Africa. That is why some communities and states use violence while other communities or states with similar conditions adopt nonviolent resistance. Based on regional specialization in Africa and beyond, his dissertation develops an empirical and theoretical basis for analyzing varied state-societal actors’ relations in identifying and sharing information for counterinsurgency—that also informs policymakers concerned with supporting indigenous ways to manage conflict. Before arriving at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Keita worked as a journalist with the disbanded BBC relay radio and newspaper (Citizen FM & New Citizen newspaper) and as a daily observer and Grts in The Gambia. During President Jammeh’s incumbency, he was forced to seek political asylum in the United States.
Research Interest(s) & Focus: Comparative Politics of Violent Conflict of Africa, Terrorism, Ethnic Politics and Conflict, International Security, Democratization, Elections, Social Movements and Protest, Role of Media and Conflict, Settler Colonial States, and Human Rights and Law. Dr. Keita’s passion for navigating the global landscape is driven by a need to assess complex situations from multiple perspectives. His latest publication with the Canadian Journal of African Studies (CJAS) titled “Youth and Protest: How Gambia Ended Decades of Autocratic Rule,” closely studies the impact of political violence and what happens when young people align for a cause. His forthcoming publication with the Routledge Taylor & Francis Group is a contributing chapter, “Managing Mali’s Transitional Agreement Through the Politics of Insecurity,” in the book Whose Peace? Understanding Transitional Government in Africa. The chapter aims to shed light on new waves of military coups and authoritarian rulers attempting to reject democratic transition and bring back further instability in Mali. Currently under review with the special issue of Terrorism & Political Violence is the article “Community Response to Radicalization in West Africa,” which highlights the changing nature of the states in the context of political order, democratic erosion, regime preservation, political economy, and ethnic disfranchisement.
In addition to Dr. Keita’s primary Ph.D., he obtained a J.D. in law at the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations at Northwestern University. He is currently an adjunct Professor at DePaul University in Chicago, teaching Comparative Politics of Middle East and Africa.
