Political Science Faculty

Lauren Honig joined the Boston College political science department in 2017. Honig researches and teaches on comparative politics and the political economy of development in African countries, with a focus on property rights, citizen-state linkages, customary authority, and informal institutions.

Her book, Land Politics: How Customary Institutions Shape State Building in Zambia and Senegal (Cambridge University Press), examines the struggle to control land in Africa through the lens of land titling. Based on extensive fieldwork, it shows how historical institutions impact the contemporary expansion of state property rights, in an era of increasing land scarcity and booming global land markets. Her research has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Sciences Research Council, and Fulbright, among others. It has been published or is forthcoming in journals including African Affairs, the American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics, Democratization, Perspectives on Politics, and World Development. 

Prior to joining the faculty at Boston College, Honig was a visiting research fellow at the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame. She completed her B.A. at Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in Government at Cornell University.