Joseph Lasky

Focus Areas: Comparative Politics, African Politics, Legacies of Violence, Political Behavior, Memory Politics

Joseph is the Robert E. Pollack ’61 Lecturer in Discipline at SIPA. He specializes in comparative politics with a focus on the long-term legacies of violent conflict on political behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa. In his current research, he explores the intergenerational transmission of narratives surrounding violent conflict that occurred between anticolonial factions and the French administration in 1950s-60s Cameroon. His work centers the local political context as a critical component for understanding the interpretation of national conflict, interpretations that are then passed down from one generation to the next through narratives and political socialization. His work has appeared in the Journal of Modern African Studies and African Affairs.

Joseph holds a BA from Rutgers University, an MA from Villanova University, and a PhD from Cornell University. He previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He is a research associate at the Douala-based Centre de Recherche sur les Dynamiques des Mondes contemporains.

Education

• PhD in Political Science, Cornell University
• MA in Political Science, Villanova University
• BA in Political Science, Rutgers University