Lamin Keita

Lamin Keita is a postdoctoral research associate at the Keough School's Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

He earned a Ph.D. in political science with highest honors from Northwestern University. His doctoral research examines community violence and democratization in West Africa, investigating why some communities and states use violence while others in similar conditions adopt nonviolent resistance. Based on his regional specialization in Africa and beyond, Keita’s dissertation develops both empirical and theoretical frameworks for analyzing relationships between state and societal actors in identifying and sharing information for counterinsurgency. His findings also provide insights for policymakers supporting indigenous approaches to managing conflict.

Keita is the first doctoral student in Northwestern’s Department of Political Science to receive both the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship (SSRC-IDRF).

Before beginning his academic career, Keita worked as a journalist in The Gambia with BBC relay radio, Citizen FM, and the New Citizen newspaper. During President Yahya Jammeh’s regime, he was forced to seek political asylum in the United States.

Focus: Democracy