معرفی
Melissa M. Lee is the Klein Family Presidential Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the World House Student Fellows Program at Perry World House. Her research focuses on the international and domestic politics of statebuilding, sovereignty, and state development, emphasizing how foreign subversion undermines state authority. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.A. from the University of California San Diego.
Lee’s work bridges historical and contemporary case studies, including Russian relations with post-Soviet states, Malaysian subversion of the Philippines, and Thai subversion of Vietnam-occupied Cambodia. Her book *Crippling Leviathan* (2020) won major awards, including the APSA Merze Tate Award and Perry World House’s Emerging Scholar Prize. She also contributes policy writing to *Foreign Affairs* and the Irregular Warfare Initiative.
Previous roles include Assistant Professor at Princeton University and Lightning Scholar at Perry World House. Her research has been published in top journals like the *American Political Science Review* and *International Organization*.
Awards:
- APSA Merze Tate Award (2016)
- APSA European Politics and Society Section Best Article Prize (2020)
- Perry World House Emerging Scholar Global Policy Prize
- APSA Foreign Policy Section Honorable Mention for Best Book
Her work examines dependent territories in international relations, the historical roots of state weakness, and the interplay between conflict and governance. Lee’s scholarship integrates quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze how external actors shape domestic political dynamics.
