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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
- Forthcoming, American Journal of Political Science, "Disentangling the Roles of Civic Information, Self-Efficacy, and Religious Authority in Youth Political Participation: Evidence from a WhatsApp-Based Experiment in Zambia" with Gwyneth McClendon (NYU) and O'Brien Kaaba (University of Zambia).
- Forthcoming, Journal of Religion in Africa, "Delivering Democracy? Comparing Catholic Bishops’ Public Advocacy for Democracy in Malawi and Zambia, 1987-2022."
- Coauthored with former DU MA student, Paige Wietzel!
- “Comparing the Religious and Political Orientations of Renewalist Christians Across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (Feb., 2023), with Erin Hern (Syracuse University).
- Recipient of the Dean's Award for Interdisciplinary Studies (2022-2023), University of Denver
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Education
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PhD, MPh, MA, Columbia University (2016)
- Recipient of Doria Award
BA, Brown University (2006)
- Highest Honors, recipient of Ida B. Wells Award
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Contact
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Email: Elizabeth[dot]Sperber[at]DU.edu2000 E. Asbury Ave.
Denver, CO 80208 -
Lusaka, Zambia, 2013. Research assistant, Mr. Lungu, helps construct databases from government records.
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Rakai District, Uganda, 2010. Pictured here with research assistants on a predissertation study.
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Partisan Evangelical Christian organization campaigns for incumbent Presidential candidate a month before Zambia's controversial 2016 election. Photo credit: Lusaka Times, 7/27/16.