Jeffrey W Paller

I am an assistant professor of politics at University of San Francisco. I previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, working with the Center for Sustainable Urban Development. I use ethnography, focus groups, surveys, and experimental methods to examine the political conditions under which democratic activity and accountability develop in poor urban communities. I received my PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the department of political science in 2014. My dissertation received the 2014 African Politics Conference Group-Lynne Rienner Award for Best Dissertation in African Politics. My research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the University of Wisconsin. I was a Research Associate at the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana in 2012. Prior to graduate school, I graduated with honors from Northwestern University and served as a Program Coordinator for the Illinois Education Foundation. During the academic year 2014-15, I was a Visiting Lecturer of Politics at Bates College.