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Travis Curtice, PhD, Assistant Professor of Politics, Drexel University

Travis Curtice, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Politics
Office: 3025 MacAlister Hall
tbc52@drexel.edu

Additional Sites:

traviscurtice.com, @travisbcurtice


Education:

  • PhD, Political Science, Emory University, 2020
  • MA, Political Science, University of Arkansas, 2012
  • BA, International Studies, Missouri Southern State University, 2009

Curriculum Vitae:

Download [PDF]

Research Interests:

  • Policing
  • Conflict
  • Political Economy of Crime
  • Authoritarian Politics
  • Research Methods

Bio:

Travis Curtice is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics. Prior to coming to Drexel, he held fellowships with the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, the U.S. Institute for Peace, and the Democracy Program at the Carter Center. Curtice completed his Ph.D. in Political Science from Emory University in 2020, receiving the Pursuit of Excellence in Political Science Award.

Dr. Curtice’s work is motived by questions on political violence, identity, conflict, and crime. He uses diverse research methods including survey experiments, field research, qualitative interviews, and cross-national comparisons. Curtice is currently working on his first book manuscript entitled The Repression Dilemma: The Politics of Policing in Multi-ethnic Societies.

He is passionate about developing research partnerships. His current research project is a comparative study of ethnic and gender biases in citizen-police interactions in fragile and violent contexts. He is a member of the Folke Bernadotte Academy and has presented his work at the Empirical Studies of Conflict and other policy workshops. His work has appeared in International Security, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Conflict Management and Peace Science, The Journal of Global Security Studies, Political Violence at a Glance, and The Washington Post. His research has received generous funding from the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Carter Center, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Curtice’s teaching focuses on fundamental themes of politics including governance, development, conflict, and political violence. He has taught courses on comparative politics, international relations, and research methods/statistical inference.

Professor Curtice has worked as an election analyst for international election observation missions to the Cherokee Nation, Kenya, Liberia, and Nepal. He has also worked as a consultant for the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund evaluating their peacebuilding efforts in Burundi.

Selected Publications:

Refereed Articles
Grasse, Donald, Melissa Pavlik, Hilary Matfess, and Travis Curtice. “Opportunistic Repression: Patterns of civilian targeting by the state in response to COVID-19.” International Security (2021). 

Curtice, Travis. "How Repression Affects Public Perceptions of Police: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Uganda." Journal of Conflict Resolution (2021): https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027211013097.

Curtice, Travis. “Rebels and the Regime: The Politics of Civilian Victimization.” Journal of Global Security Studies 6.2 (2021): https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogaa025.

Curtice, Travis B, and Brandon Behlendorf. "Street-level repression: Protest, policing, and dissent in Uganda." Journal of Conflict Resolution 65.1 (2021): https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002720939304.

Curtice, Travis B., and Daniel Arnon. "Deterring threats and settling scores: How coups influence respect for physical integrity rights." Conflict Management and Peace Science 37.6 (2020): https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894219843240.

Media Publications
Soldiers and police are on the streets as Ugandans prepare to vote,” Washington Post (January 2021).

Democracy in Crisis: Do Americans Support Deploying Election Monitors?” (with Charles Crabtree) Political Violence at a Glance (November 2020).

Autocratic governments are using coronavirus as pretext to clamp down on opponents,” (with Donald Grasse, Melissa Pavlik, and Hilary Matfess) Washington Post (July 2020).

The Political Backlash of Repressive Policing,” Political Violence at a Glance (June 2020).

Trump wants to pull Cameroon’s preferential trade status. Here’s what you need to know,” Washington Post (November 2019).

Ugandan police are attacking protesters. Here’s how that backfires” (with Brandon Berhlendorf) Washington Post (January 2019).

Do coups improve human rights in countries like Gabon?” (with Daniel Arnon) Democracy in Africa (January 2019).