Michael Wahman

 

Michael Wahman is a Professor at the LBJ School. He is a Political Scientist with an interest in democracy, elections, and representation, primarily in Africa. He joined the LBJ School in 2026 after holding research and teaching positions at Michigan State University, the University of Missouri, the London School of Economics, and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies. He has also been a visiting researcher at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Aarhus University (Denmark), University College London (UK), and the University of Cape Town (South Africa).

 

He has published widely on topics related to democracy and representation in prominent political science journals, including American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Politics, and Perspectives on Politics. His most recent book, Controlling Territory, Controlling Voters: The Electoral Geography of African Campaign Violence, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. The book advances a new electoral-geography theory of violence in African election campaigns. He is an editorial board member at the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Democratization, and the Journal of African Elections. 

 

In addition to his academic research, Prof. Wahman regularly engages with the policy world. He has led several research projects in collaboration with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). He has also collaborated with the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy (DIPD) and the German Federal Ministry for Cooperation and Development (BMZ). He was the chief election analyst for Zambia’s Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) and has also been engaged in training for European Union (EU) election monitors.