Mai Hassan

Associate Professor of Political Science

CV

Comparative politics; bureaucracy; public administration; the state; contentious politics; state repression; African Politics; Middle East and North African Politics.

Biography

Mai Hassan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT. Her work examines topics that span across authoritarian regimes, bureaucracy and public administration, and contentious politics.

Her first book, Regime Threats and State Solutions: Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya, was selected as a Best Book of 2020 by Foreign Affairs, won the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Robert A Dahl Award, and was the recipient of the African Studies Association 2021 Bethwell A. Ogot Award. Professor Hassan’s other research has been published in numerous outlets, including the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, and the Journal of Politics.  She earned her PhD in Government from Harvard University. Before arriving at MIT, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan.

News

Machinery of the state

Leda Zimmerman MIT Department of Political Science

In Eastern Africa, Mai Hassan documents a bureaucratic system set up for coercion, as well as roadblocks to democratic government

Biography

Mai Hassan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT. Her work examines topics that span across authoritarian regimes, bureaucracy and public administration, and contentious politics.

Her first book, Regime Threats and State Solutions: Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya, was selected as a Best Book of 2020 by Foreign Affairs, won the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Robert A Dahl Award, and was the recipient of the African Studies Association 2021 Bethwell A. Ogot Award. Professor Hassan’s other research has been published in numerous outlets, including the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, and the Journal of Politics.  She earned her PhD in Government from Harvard University. Before arriving at MIT, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan.

News

Machinery of the state

Leda Zimmerman MIT Department of Political Science

In Eastern Africa, Mai Hassan documents a bureaucratic system set up for coercion, as well as roadblocks to democratic government