Edmond J. Keller is Research Professor of political science, and former Director of the UCLA Globalization Research Center-Africa and of the James S. Coleman African Studies Center at the University of California-Los Angeles. He specializes in comparative politics with an emphasis on Africa. Keller received his B.A. in Government from Louisiana State University in New Orleans, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has taught at Indiana University, Dartmouth College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Xavier University (New Orleans), and the University of California-Santa Barbara. Keller has been a visiting research scholar at the Institute for Development Studies (Nairobi, Kenya), the Bureau of Educational Research (Nairobi), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the Africa Institute of South Africa, and the University of California-Berkeley Institute for International Studies. Also, he has consulted widely on issues relating to African Development and public policy, and, more recently, on the process of political transitions in Africa, and on African regional security issues.

Among his professional activities, Keller served on the Council of the American Political Science Association (APSA), 2000-2002; Executive Committee of the Comparative Politics Section of the APSA, 1996-1998; and in 2007-2008 he was Co-program Chair (with Jane Junn) for the APSA 2008 Annual Meeting. He has also served on the Editorial Board of the Western Political Science Association and the National Journal of Political Science; as Editor of the Journal of African Policy Studies; as treasurer for the North American Chapter of the African Journal of Political Science; and as vice president and president of the African Studies Association. Keller was the recipient of the African Studies Association Distinguished Africanist Award for 2008.

Primary Project: At this point, my primary research focus is on identity politics in contemporary Africa and the importance of different forms of citizenship in explaining the roots of socio-political conflict and the process of conflict resolution. The background and theoretical basis of this project are laid out in my monograph, Identity, Citizenship and Political Conflict in Africa. (Indiana University Press, 2014)

Secondary Project: My second and most recent project is on Ethiopia’s efforts to implement its pro-poor urban housing and water and sanitation policies in the capital, Addis Ababa. At this stage I have done fieldwork and written a paper on pro-poor housing. The title of the paper (which is under review) is: ” Rapid Urban Expansion and the Challenge of Pro-Poor Housing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia”.

Selected Publications:

Keller is the author of three monographs: Education, Manpower and Development: The Impact of Educational Policy in Kenya (1980);Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People’s Republic (1988), andIdentity, Citizenship and Political Conflict in Africa, Indiana University Press (2014 forthcoming). Professor Keller has also written more than 60 articles on African and African American politics, and has co-edited seven books: Afro-marxist Regimes: Ideology and Public Policy (with Donald Rothchild, 1987); South Africa in Southern Africa: Domestic Change and International Conflict (with Louis Picard, 1989), Africa in the New International Order: Rethinking State Sovereignty and Regional Security(with Donald Rothchild, 1996); Africa-US Relations: Strategic Encounters(with Donald Rothchild, 2006); HIV/AIDS in Africa: Challenges and Impact (co-edited with Edith Omwami and Stephen Commins, 2008);Trustee for the Human Community: Ralph J. Bunche, the United Nations, and the Decolonization of Africa (with Robert Hill, 2010); and Religion, Institutions and the Transition to Democracy in Africa (with Ruth Iyob, 2012). Keller’s main research is on issues of political transitions in Africa; cultural pluralism, identity politics and citizenship; and conflict and conflict management in Africa. His most recent publication is on Rapid Urban Expansion and the Challenge of Pro-Poor Housing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.