Prof. Avital Livny holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and an M.Phil. in Modern Middle Eastern Studies and an M.Sc. in Comparative Politics Research from the University of Oxford. She earned her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in Political Science, History, and Near Eastern Studies, and worked as a Policy Assistant for Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund) before beginning her graduate studies. 

in 2018, Prof. Livny received an award from the National Science Foundation to support her project, "Improving and Integrating Global Diversity Estimates Using Transparent Methods." She spent AY 2019-2020 as a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Society at Chapman University. Previously, she spent AY 2018-2019 as a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois and AY 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 as a Linowes Faculty Fellow at the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. Prior to her time at Illinois, she spent AY 2014-15 as a Junior Research Fellow at the Carlos III-Juan March Institute in Madrid.

Her first book, published with Cambridge University Press in 2020, is entitled Trust and the Islamic Advantage: Religious-Based Movements in Turkey and the Muslim World. Other work appears or is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies, The Journal of Politics, and Public Opinion Quarterly.

Middle East
Comparative Politics
Identity Politics
Turkey

Prof. Livny’s research interests generally fall under the headings of comparative politics and political economics and include: the politics of religion and ethnicity, particularly the micro-foundations of identity-based mobilization and the measurement of identity as a variable; the foundations of political engagement in developing democracies; and patterns of interpersonal trust and tolerance, across space and time. Her region of interest is the Middle East and she has conducted extensive research in Turkey. She is a native speaker of Hebrew and English and has good knowledge of both Turkish and Modern Standard Arabic.

Ph.D. in Political Science, Stanford University (2016)
M.Sc. in Comparative Political Research Methods, University of Oxford (2006)
M.Phil. in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford (2005)
B.A. in Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis (2002)

Larine Y. Cowan "Make a Difference" Award, Teaching & Mentoring in Diversity (2021)

Juan Linz Best Dissertation Award, Comparative Democratization Section, American Political Science Association (2017)

Faculty Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018-19)

Linowes Faculty Fellow, Cline Center for Advanced Social Research (AY 2016-17, 2017-18)

NSF Political Science Award No. 1824005

PS 152 The New Middle East
PS 199 Identity Politics in Comparative Perspective
PS 241 Comparative Politics in Developing Nations
PS 292 Undergraduate Research Practicum
PS 347 Government and Politics of the Middle East

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