My Latest News
This has been a very busy year! In March I successfully defended my dissertation, which finds that weak governments generally attempt to appease viable rebels and coup plotters by shifting government spending on health, education, and other public goods. There is some supportive evidence for my findings in the ongoing protests in North Africa and the Middle East, so I have been following these events with great interest. My research on this topic is published in International Studies Quarterly (Sep 2011) and you can see the manuscript for the article here.
I also taught African Politics [syllabus] for the first time this spring and I could not have hoped for better timing. While I hope for the best for the people of South Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, and Libya, their recent trials generated many instructive and fruitful class discussions.
Finally, I was invited to present my most recent research on African security at a conference hosted by the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) in Durban, South Africa. I was very excited to head back to Africa in September for this exciting opportunity and I look forward to pursuing extensions of this interdisciplinary project in the future.
Contact
Office: Ketchum 121A
Fall Hrs: 4:45-6:00 TR
curtis.bell@colorado.edu
Curtis Bell
Dept of Political Science
UCB 333
Boulder, CO 80309