Dr. Robtel Pailey

Biography

Robtel Neajai Pailey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE, where she has been since September 2020. A Liberian scholar-activist, Robtel focuses on intersectional studies in Critical Development, Critical African, and Critical Race Studies. She is currently engaged in a book project titled Africa’s ‘Negro’ Republics, which critically examines the historical impacts of slavery, colonialism, and neoliberalism on citizenship laws in Liberia and Sierra Leone. This research relies on extensive fieldwork across several continents. Robtel is the author of the award-winning monograph Development, (Dual) Citizenship Discontents Africa: Political Economy of Belonging Liberia, which received several accolades, including the 2022 African Politics Conference Group Book Award. In addition to her research, she has taught numerous undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Prior to her role at LSE, Robtel was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford and an Ibrahim Leadership Fellow at the African Development Bank Group. She completed her doctorate in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, in 2014. Her work addresses issues concerning political economy, governance, migration, and race, and has been published in various academic journals.

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Awards