Fellowship: Ezera Research for African Students
Fellowship Year: 2025
Project Theme/Title: Who Governs Whom?: The Effect of Administrative Jurisdictional Change on Citizens' Political Behavior
Abstract: How do shifts in administrative boundaries reshape political behavior, ethnic identification, and economic fortunes in multiethnic states? Leveraging Ethiopia’s recent transfer of neighborhoods between Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia regional state, this study posits that boundary shifts realign the relational status of ethnic majorities and minorities, thus altering perceptions of ethnic bias, trust in governing institutions, and patterns of intergroup interaction. I intend to employ a mixed-methods, natural-experimental approach that integrates quantitative evidence drawn from household surveys, firm-level analyses and survey experiments with qualitative insights from interviews and focus groups. The study hopes to illustrate how administrative realignments conditioned by institutionalized ethnic governance can intensify ethnic tensions, recalibrate political behavior and individual attitudes at the local level, as well as reshape economic opportunities, contributing to existing debates on the intersection of identity and governance.
Job title:
Phd Candidate
Department:
Political Science
Research interests:
Topics
