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  • Welcome. I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. My primary research interests concern religion and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the role of Christianities in Southern and Eastern African politics. My book manuscript, Deus ex Machina? The Politics of New Religious Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa, offers new theory to explain why Pentecostal Christianity has emerged as a highly politicized identity in some sub-Saharan states in recent decades but not others. I test this theory using both cross and sub-national data, which includes qualitative and quantitative databases that I compiled in Zambia (2011-2017).

    Other research interests, focused primarily on African contexts, include youth political participation, the impact of religious and non-religious civic education programs on youth political participation, Catholic Bishops' political advocacy across countries and over time, the political economy of development, and social policy in cross-national perspective. 

    Recent Publications and Grants

  • Education

  • PhD, MPh, MA, Columbia University (2016)

    • Recipient of Doria Award

    BA, Brown University (2006)

    • Highest Honors, recipient of Ida B. Wells Award
  • Contact

  • Email: Elizabeth[dot]Sperber[at]DU.edu
     
    Office: Sturm Hall, Room 471
    2000 E. Asbury Ave.
    Denver, CO 80208 
     
  • Lusaka, Zambia, 2013. Research assistant, Mr. Lungu, helps construct databases from government records. 

  • Rakai District, Uganda, 2010. Pictured here with research assistants on a predissertation study.

  • Partisan Evangelical Christian organization campaigns for incumbent Presidential candidate a month before Zambia's controversial 2016 election. Photo credit: Lusaka Times, 7/27/16.

This portfolio last updated: 25-Jan-2024 10:30 PM