Vilas Research Professor of Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Commentary

Links are provided for many of these guest posts and commentaries. I have no control over pages which are occasionally moved.

Tripp, Aili Mari. “Trump’s framing of Nigeria insurgency as a war on Christians risks
undermining interfaith peacebuilding,” The Conversation, January 28, 2026.

“Women Confronting Algerian Politics: Plus ça change.” MENA Politics: Newsletter of the Middle East and North Africa Politics Section of APSA 7, no. 2 (Fall 2024).

 “Cecilia Atim Ogwal: a fearless Ugandan politician who spoke her mind and challenged
conventions,” The Conversation, January 25, 2024.

Reprinted in Radio Afrika, Fast ein Wunder: Sich als Frau auf Ugandas politischer Bühne durchsetzen Africa Libre.

The effects of autocratisation on women’s rights: a contradictory picture,” The Loop: ECPR’s Political Science Blog. March 2023.

“The best books on the economy as if people mattered. ”Shepherd Best Books. 2023.

When Do Authoritarian Ruling Parties in Africa Advance Women Leaders?” Comparative Politics
Newsletter
(Section of American Political Science Association).Vol. 32 (2) Fall 2022.

Book Roundtable [on Aili Tripp’s book], Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies
Adopt Women’s Rights
. APSA MENA Newsletter, Vol. 5, Issue 1, Spring 2022, Pages 65-74.

Blog about new book: Women and Peacebuilding in Africa, Eds. Ladan Affi, Liv Tønnessen, and Aili Tripp, Suffolk and Oxford, United Kingdom: Boydell & Brewer Press and James Currey, 2021.

Digital Fieldwork in Africa in a Pandemic,” Digital Fieldwork blog. September 5, 2021.

Women Appointed to Top Positions in Uganda but Feelings are Mixed. The Conversation, June 15, 2021.

We’re an All-Women Team Chosen to Edit Political Science’s Flagship Journal. Here’s Why that Matters,” a 2020 blog with Austin, Dion, Bedolla, Hayward, Kadera, Novkov, Sinclair-Chapman, Strolovich, Walsh, Weldon, and Wood. Washington Post, Monkey Cage. August 29, 2020.

About Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring, by Mounira  Charrad and Rita Stephan, New York University Press, March 2021.

Interview, Comparative Politics Newsletter, April 2021.

 “Why Autocrats Adopt Women’s Rights: The Case of Morocco,” Ed. Gamze Cadvar. Fall 2020 issue of the APSA-MENA Politics Newsletter .

“Women’s Activism in Africa: Struggles for Rights and Representation,” Blog in Democracy in Africa. July 19, 2019.

Analysis | Women are deeply involved in the Algerian protests — on International Women’s Day, and all the time, Monkey Cage, Washington Post, May 7, 2019.

« Mujeres y poder en África hoy, » In Vanguardia Dossier, No. 73 Special issue “El siglo de las mujeres,”  July/September 2019.

Should There be a 5th World Conference on Women in 2020? NYU Global Citizen, October 24, 2018.

As feministas da África influenciam o feminismo global,” CartaCapital (Brazil) March 23, 2017.

Why Do Women’s Rights Advance More Quickly after Major Conflict? #IWD2017. Africa at LSE. March 8, 2017.

How African Feminism Changed the WorldAfrican Arguments, March 8, 2017.

Where do African women have more power? Surprise — in countries emerging from warMonkey Cage, Washington Post, July 15, 2016.

DA-RT and Publishing Research from Authoritarian and Conflict Settings, African Politics Conference Group Newsletter August 2016, 12 (2): 13-14.

A View from Morocco:  The Danger of Escalating Anti-Muslim Rhetoric, Huffington Post, 16 November 2015.

Twenty years after the most important U.N. conference on women, what – if anything – has changed? with Alice Kang, Monkey Cage at Washington Post, 25 September 2015.

Can We Wait 100 More Years to Reach Gender Parity in Congress? Huffington Post, 23 December 2014.

“New Funding Challenges and Opportunities in African Studies Research,” AfricaNews Online.

“Women and Politics in Africa Today,” Democracy in Africa, December 7, 2013. Also published in US-Africa Dialogue Series 12.9.13 and in ASA Newsonline

“How African Feminism Changed the World “ Think Africa Press, 8 March 2013.

One of 10 Most Read Articles from 2013; Editors’ Picks as One of Top 15 Articles from 2013

“Do Arab Women Need Electoral Quotas?” Foreign Policy: The Middle East Channel, January 19, 2012. 

New Directions in Scholarship on Gender and Politics in Africa,” Symposium, “New Directions in Gender and Politics Scholarship: Transforming the Study of African Politics,”

Edited with Gretchen Bauer, African Politics Conference Group Newsletter, 8 (2): September 2012.

“Gender, Power and Peacemaking in Africa,” Center for African Studies Newsletter, Rutgers University, Fall 2012, Volume XX.

“NSF Critical Issues White Paper: Gender Analysis and Women’s Rights: A Critical Research Need,” with Myra Marx Ferree (Lead author). January 2011.

“Gender Quotas: Female Legislative Representation.” (with Alice Kang) Americas Quarterly. Spring 2009.

“Support Citizens of War-torn Uganda,” Wisconsin State Journal (Opinion) 29 April 2006, A10.

Graduate Seminar: State and Society in Comparative Perspective (PS 948)”  Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies. 2005.

 “New Trends in Women’s Political Participation in Africa” in Gender and Governance Resource Database. Asian Women’s Resource Exchange, The Center for Legislative Development, Philippines.

“Viewpoint: New Threats to Academic Freedom in International Education,” ASA News. 37 (2): 14-15, April 2004.

“International Women’s Studies Congress in Uganda and the Changing Shape of Gender Studies in Africa,” African Studies News & Notes, Volume 58, Winter Volume 2003.

“Hilkka Pietilä on Women’s Gains in Finland.” Finn New World, June 2003.

“International Women’s Studies Congress in Uganda Reflects Changes in Global Debates” In NWSAction Newsletter. Fall 2002.

“International Women’s Studies Congress in Uganda Reflects Changes in Global Debates.” Women’s Caucus newsletter of the African Studies Association.

“Essay on artwork exhibition, ‘Women Emerging: A Tribute to Uganda,’ sponsored by Art Room Gallery in San Francisco (Fine Arts Center for East Africa)” at University of California-Berkeley/Stanford University, African Studies Department August through December 2002.

“Conflicting Visions of Community and Citizenship: Women’s Rights and

Cultural Diversity in Uganda.”  2001.  UNRISD.

“A Directory of Fellowships, Scholarships & Grants Available in the U.S. to African Women Students and Scholars.” Updated 2001.

“Letter From” (Women and the 2000 Finnish Elections) The Nation, 10 April, 270 (14): 20-21, 2000.

A Guide to Overseas Research: Uganda.”  Posted July 11, 1999, and July 2001 from Kampala, Uganda, on ugandalist@lists.uchicago.edu (Social science researchers in Europe and US working on Uganda) 12 p.

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