Join us for a fantastic webinar in collaboration with the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR) at the University of Birmingham. All welcome!
Autocratizing Attitudes: How Russian and Chinese Influence Shapes Public Opinion in Africa
Speaker: Professor Carl LeVan, American University
Chair: Professor Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham
Wednesday 21 May 2025
3:30PM UK time
Register by clicking here.
Speaker profile
A. Carl LeVan is Professor and Chair in the Department of Politics, Governance and Economics at American University in Washington, DC. His research focuses on political institutions, democratization, and governance. His latest book, Contemporary Nigerian Politics: Competition in a Time of Transition and Terror (Cambridge 2019) explores the impact of insecurity on parties and elections in Africa’s largest democracy. He is the co-editor of three books, including The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics (with Patrick Ukata, 2018), and co-author of Constituents before Assembly (Cambridge 2017) about the lasting impact of participatory constitution-making on democracy. He has also authored or co-authored articles on the Boko Haram insurgency, power-sharing in east Africa, the economics of coalition governments, and American liberalism. Recent collaborative publications explore mistrust both comparatively and sub-nationally in the United States. His current research project studies the impact of authoritarian foreign influence on democratic attitudes. He is a Research Associate with the Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of Pretoria and serves on the editorial boards of Governance, Journal of Modern African Studies, and Frontiers in Political Science. He has taught at the George Washington University, University of Ibadan (Nigeria), and Ritsumeikan University (Japan). Prior to obtaining his PhD in political science from the University of California – San Diego, LeVan worked in the U.S. Congress and then as an adviser to Nigeria’s National Assembly. He has appeared on CNN, PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, Voice of America TV, BBC World Television, al Jazeera, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! and other major media programmes. He’s active on BlueSky social media as @DemocracyProfDC
