Overview
Ellen Lust, a professor in the Department of Government, directs the Einaudi Center for International Studies, is the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies, and is a professor in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.
Her research examines the role of social institutions and local authorities in governance, particularly in Southwest Asia and North Africa. She has conducted fieldwork and surveys in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Zambia and authored numerous books and articles. Her most recent book is Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
Lust is the founding director of the Governance and Local Development Institute, established at Yale University in 2013 and currently based at Cornell's Brooks School and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She has served as an advisor to organizations including the Carter Center, Freedom House, United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank.
Publications
Recent Publications
- American Political Science Review: Female representation and legitimacy: Evidence from a harmonized experiment in Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia
- American Political Science Review: Land and legibility: When do citizens expect secure property rights in weak states?
- American Journal of Political Science: Is authority fungible? Legitimacy, domain congruence, and the limits of power in Africa