Pathbreaking Women in Comparative Politics: Barbara Geddes on Marrying Theory and Evidence in the Study of Political Regimes
Description
This episode features an interview with Barbara Geddes, conducted by Department of Political Science at Yale University graduate students Jonathan Elkobi and Saumyaa Gupta via zoom on April 17, 2025.
Professor Barbara Geddes has fundamentally reshaped how political scientists understand authoritarian regimes, state capacity and institutional development. She is currently Professor Emerita of Political Science at UCLA. Born in 1944, she went back to school in her 30s, earning her BA (1978) and then PhD (1986) in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Widely recognized for her path-breaking theoretical contributions to our understanding of authoritarianism and democratization, she also has also influenced our thinking about research design in comparative politics. Over the course of her career, she has chaired more than 50 dissertations and served as a committee member for more than 50 additional advisees. In 2025, the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association established the Barbara Geddes Award for Lifetime Achievement in Research, Teaching, and Graduate
Mentoring in her honor.
See here for an abridged interview published in the APSA Comparative Politics Newsletter, a glossary of names and terms, and a long-form version of the interview.
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