Deborah Jane Yashar (born 1963) is an American political scientist. She is a

Full Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Politics and International Affairs at the

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

. Her research interests involve politics of children and immigration in the Americas.

Early life and education

Yashar was born in 1963 to parents of Iranian and Ukrainian descent. She earned her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and her

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and PhD from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She received a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to conduct dissertation research in Guatemala.

Career

After earning her PhD, Yashar became a Junior faculty member in

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's department of Government and Committee on Degrees in Social Studies. In 1996, she became a Fellow at the Kellogg Institute For International Studies at

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. She also republished her dissertation "''Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s-1950s''" through the

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...

. Two years later, she accepted an Assistant professor position at the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

. In 2005, Yashar published "''Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge''" through the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, which examined how Latin American indigenous populations have mobilized. The book earned her the 2006 New England Council on Latin American Studies Best Book Award. A few years later, she was promoted to

of politics and international affairs. In 2009, Yashar, Atul Kohli, and sociologist Miguel Centeno received a grant from the Princeton Global Collaborative Research Fund for their research project "State-Building in the Developing World." She also co-edited ''Parties Movements and Democracy in the Developing World'' and ''Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics.'' In 2018, she published "''Homicidal Ecologies: Illicit Economies and Complicit States in Latin America,''" a book which focused on the high and uneven homicide rates of Latin Americans. She was awarded the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...

Comparative Democratization Section 2019 Best Book Award. Yashar later became the Chair of the Editorial Board for the political science journal '' World Politics.''

References

External links

Princeton profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yashar, Deborah J. Living people 1963 births Brown University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American women political scientists American political scientists Princeton University faculty Political science journal editors American women academics 21st-century American women