Sean Paul Ashley

Sean Paul Ashley is a President's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland and a non-residential Civil War Paths Fellow at the Centre for the Comparative Study of Civil War. His research focuses on conflict legacies, post-war reconstruction, authoritarian survival, and civil war dynamics, particularly in Africa and the Global South. He holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University (2023) and a BA in Politics (honors) from Princeton University.

His work has been recognized with awards including the Patricia Weitsman Award (2024) and the Ralph Bunche Best Graduate Student Paper Award (2023). His research employs mixed methods, including archival analysis, field interviews, and the VICTOR dataset capturing rebel victors’ postwar trajectories since 1945.

Award-winning educator, Ashley has taught at Harvard and MIT, emphasizing conflict resolution, comparative politics, and international security. He has received grants from the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Harvard Program on Negotiation. Current projects explore post-rebel governance and the impact of security force defection on democratic transitions.

• Labs/Teams: Centre for the Comparative Study of Civil War (non-residential)
• Grants: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard Program on Negotiation
• Future Work: Book project on post-rebel state-building, analysis of nonviolent revolutions