معرفی
Laura Paler is Provost Associate Professor in the Department of Government at American University's School of Public Affairs, where she also serves as Graduate Program Director. She teaches core courses including GOVT-130 Comparative Politics and GOVT-231 Politics in Developing World, with scheduled instruction through Fall 2025.
Education:
- PhD in Political Science, Columbia University
- MPhil, Oxford University (St. Antony's College)
- B.A., The George Washington University
Dr. Paler specializes in comparative politics with focus on political economy of development and intergroup dynamics. Her research investigates when intergroup contact causes public versus private attitude divergence, and how revenue sources like taxation, natural resources, and foreign aid shape political behavior. Methodologically, she employs experiments and causal inference tools, conducting field research across Indonesia, Colombia, Uganda, Lebanon, DRC, and the United States.
Her work appears in leading journals including The American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, The Quarterly Journal of Political Science, and Comparative Political Studies.
Scientific Recognition:
- Co-Director of Democratic Erosion Consortium (awarded $1.7 million grant)
- Member of Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) network
- Co-convener of Northeast Workshop in Empirical Political Science
As Graduate Program Director, Dr. Paler oversees government graduate programs while leading DEC's initiatives including a democratic erosion events dataset, summer fellowship program, policy briefs, and public events. Previously, she served as assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh, fellow at Princeton's Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, and post-doctoral fellow at Center for Global Development.
Her research lab focuses on large-scale field projects involving experiments and original data collection, with particular attention to mitigation strategies for democratic erosion worldwide.
