Meet our new faculty: Christian Davenport | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Meet our new faculty: Christian Davenport

August 17, 2020

Christian Davenport holds faculty positions at the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research and at LSA Political Science. He is also the co-director of the Conflict & Peace, Research & Development, a scholarly community focused on political conflict and peace through the use of rigorous, evidence-based research as well as community-building related efforts around relevant themes. And now he joins the Ford School as courtesy faculty. This fall, he will be teaching a course on civil conflict that cuts across disciplines and fields of study.

He collaborates internationally as a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and as co-director of Conflict & Peace, Research & Development, a scholarly community focused on political conflict and peace through the use of rigorous, evidence-based research as well as community-building related efforts around relevant themes.

Ford School: You always have a number of projects going at the same time. What are some of the top ones you are involved with now?

You’re right. Currently I am waiting for reviews on a book regarding how to end repressive spells; I am finishing a book with numerous co-authors regarding the consequences of contention which introduces some new theory, data and analysis for a global sample of countries from 1976 to 2016; I am working on a few articles concerning the impact of democracy on repression within situations of civil unrest, a piece on what accounts for variation in the urban uprisings/riots of the 1960s and 1970s as well as a piece on what accounts for black outmigration and non-return for the period between 1790-2010; and I am completing a database on perpetrator-victim combinations for all repressive spells from 1976 to 2016 in order to explore the perpetrator and victim specific explanations regarding onset, type, severity, termination and recurrence.

Ford School: What courses do you enjoy teaching?

I think my favorite courses are Civil Conflict (which I will be teaching at Ford in the fall) and “Saving the World or Wasting Time (An Evaluation of Social Movement Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness). The first I enjoy because it allows me to talk about a wide range of activities that are normally separated from one another. The second I enjoy because it is so relevant to what takes place in the world and it always leads to engaging conversations about what should/should not be done.

Ford School: Do you have a favorite quote?

The philosopher-statesman George Saville wrote in the 17th century that “A (person) that should call everything by its right name would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy”.

Ford School: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

If you want to know more about me, have a look at: www.christiandavenport.com