- Phone:
- (812) 855-1460
- Email:
- brassj@indiana.edu
- Room Number:
- 457
- Areas of Interest:
- African Politics ,
- Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) ,
- Energy and International Development ,
- Comparative Public Administration ,
- Governance ,
- Civil Society ,
- Political Economy of Development
Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, University of California at Berkeley, 2010
- M.A., Political Science, University of California at Berkeley, 2004
- B.S. (magna cum laude), Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 1999
Courses
- Approaches to Development
- Nation Building
- National & International Policy
- NGO Management for International Development
- Research Methods
Biography
Dr. Jennifer N. Brass is an expert on service provision, governance, and state development, with a primary geographic focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Her book, Allies or Adversaries? NGOs and the State in Africa (Cambridge University Press; winner of the 2018 ARNOVA Outstanding Book Award), examines the role that nongovernmental organizations play in service provision, state-society relations, and state development in Kenya. Related to her monograph, Brass’s newest research agenda aims to synthesize collective knowledge about the effects and effectiveness of NGOs using systematic review techniques. A second, collaborative project examines the politics and governance of renewable and small-scale electricity provision in developing countries, with a focus on Africa.
Brass's articles have appeared in Governance, World Development, Development and Change, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Modern African Studies, Annual Review of Environment & Resources, WIREs: Energy & Environment, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Journal of Public Affairs Education.
Brass has conducted extensive field research in Senegal, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda. She holds a Ph.D. and masters in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Brass's articles have appeared in Governance, World Development, Development and Change, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Modern African Studies, Annual Review of Environment & Resources, WIREs: Energy & Environment, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Journal of Public Affairs Education.
Brass has conducted extensive field research in Senegal, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda. She holds a Ph.D. and masters in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Highlights
- 2018 ARNOVA Outstanding Book Award for "Allies or Adversaries? NGOs and the State in Africa"
- 2017 Trustees Teaching Award
- 2016 SPEA Teaching Award for excellence in undergraduate instruction, Indiana University
- Recipient of one of five Outstanding Junior Faculty Awards at Indiana University in 2016
- 2014 SPEA Teaching Award for excellence in graduate instruction, Indiana University
- 2013 Award for Best Comparative Paper presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
- Graduate Research Fellowship ($120,000), National Science Foundation
- Emerging Scholar Award of Merit (2012), International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR).
In the News
- "A few NGOs are getting a lot of bad press. What’s the overall track record?" (with R.S.Robinson, A. Schnable) - The Washington Post, December 4, 2018
- “Cape Town still has water – for now. This may take political solutions as well as technical fixes.” (with Lauren M. MacLean, Elizabeth Baldwin and Christopher Gore) - The Washington Post, April 23, 2018
- “Kenyans will vote in August. Why are NGO-government relations an issue?” - The Washington Post, June 16, 2017
- "What Djibouti’s Election Means: A Q&A with Professor Jennifer Brass" - Africa Up Close, Wilson Center, April 14, 2016
- "Here are 3 things you should read to know more about today’s election in Djibout" - The Washington Post, April 8, 2016
- "Djibouti Presidential Election 2016: Guide To Candidates, Key Issues, Rules And Results" - International Business Times, April 7, 2016
- "With China’s Naval Base, Djibouti Could Become ‘Africa’s Singapore’" - International Business Times, February 4, 2016
Selected Works
- “NGOs and International Development: What have we learned, how did we learn it, and where should NGO research go next?” (with A. Schnable and R.S. Robinson), HistPhil, (October 17, 2018)
- "NGOs and international development: A review of thirty-five years of scholarship," (with W. Longhofer, R.S. Robinson, A. Schnable)
World Development, v112, 136-149 (December 2018) - "Political Autonomy and Resistance in Electricity Sector Liberalization in Africa," (with C. Gore, E. Baldwin, and L.M. MacLean), World Development (2018)
- Allies or Adversaries? NGOs and the State in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press (August 2016)
- “Expectations of Power: The Politics of State-Building and Access to Electricity Provision in Ghana and Uganda,” (with L. MacLean, C. Gore, E. Baldwin) , Journal of African Political Development (December 2016)
- “Development theory: Trends in governance since independence,” in Handbook on Theories of Governance C. Ansell and J. Torfing, (Eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing. (2016).
- “Democracy and the distribution of NGOs promoting renewable energy in Africa,” (with S. Carley, A. el-Arini, S. Breen and L. M. MacLean), Journal of Development Studies. (2015)
- “Foreign Aid, NGOs and the Private Sector: New Forms of Hybridity in Renewable Energy Provision in Kenya and Uganda,” (with L.M. MacLean) Africa Today 62 (1) 57-82 (Fall 2015)
- “Blurring the boundaries: NGOs and government in Kenyan service provision,” in The Politics of Non-State Social Welfare in the Global South (M. Cammet and L. M. Maclean (Eds.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2014)
- “Context-based instruction: What traditional social science disciplines offer to nonprofit management education,” (with M. G. Baggetta) Journal of Public Affairs Education 20 (4): 579-596 (2014)