Laura Seay

Education

• Ph.D. in Government, University of Texas at Austin, 2009
• M.A. in African Studies, Yale University, 2002
• B.A. in International Studies, Baylor University, 2000

Areas of Expertise

• African politics
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Fragile states
• Development
• Conflict
• Central Africa

Current Research

I study responses to conflict and non-state-based forms of authority in Africa'€™s Great Lakes region. I am currently finishing a book, Substituting for the State, about the role non-state actors play in governing the eastern DRC in response to the Congolese state's weakness in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri and how international attempts to rebuild that Congolese state fail under some conditions and succeed under others. I am also engaged in a new project on the effects of U.S. legislation designed to mitigate conflict in central Africa. My research and teaching interests include qualitative and mixed methods, African politics and development, and post-conflict state reconstruction.

Publications

• "Effective Responses: Protestants, Catholics, and the provision of health care in the post-war Kivus." Review of African Political Economy 40:135 (2013)
• "What's Wrong with Dodd-Frank 1502? Conflict Minerals, Civilian Livelihoods, and the Unintended Consequences of Western Advocacy." Center for Global Development, Working Paper 284 (2012).