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Kimberly Cowell-Meyers Associate Professor Government

Degrees
Ph.D., American University<br />
M.A., American University<br />
B.A., Smith College

Bio
Kimberly Cowell-Meyers is an Associate Professor of Government and affiliated faculty with the Women & Politics Institute at American University. Her work focuses on how representative democracy functions, specifically how political parties, social movements and legislatures structure and channel different political identities. Her research centers on two areas of identity politics: women in politics and ethnic politics, particularly in Northern Ireland. In recent years, she has conducted a series of projects on women’s political parties, including case-studies in Northern Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland, a quantitative analysis on a unique dataset of over 50 women’s political parties in Europe, and a framework for research on the topic. These projects and other work on broad aspects of representation have been published in Politics & Gender, Political Studies, Perspectives on Politics, Scandinavian Political Studies, and Foreign Affairs and The Journal of Women, Politics & Public Policy. Cowell-Meyers’ work on ethnic or sectarian politics has appeared in Irish Political Studies and Nationalism and Ethnic Studies. With Carolyn Gallaher (American University) she regularly blogs for the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage and other outlets on political developments in Northern Ireland. She has worked in the British Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the US Institute of Peace and as Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Women into Politics at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. At American University she teaches introductory and upper-level courses in comparative politics, including courses on Northern Ireland, and research methodology. She also founded and currently advises Clocks & Clouds, AU’s undergraduate student research journal in politics and public affairs.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Fall 2024

  • GOVT-310 Intro to Political Research

  • GOVT-439 Politics of Peace in N Ireland

  • SPA-480 SPA Honors Capstone

Spring 2025

  • GOVT-310 Intro to Political Research

  • SPA-396 Selected Topics:Non-Recurring: Develop Honors Resrch Proposal

  • SPA-480 SPA Honors Capstone