Feyaad Allie, Assistant Professor of Government, has received a host of awards from the American Political Science Association (APSA) for his dissertation “Power Exclusion and Identity: The Politics of Muslim Marginalization in India”.
The dissertation won the Gabriel A. Almond Award for the best dissertation in Comparative Politics. The award was created in recognition of Dr. Gabriel Almond’s contributions to the discipline, profession, and APSA.
From the APSA Democracy and Autocracy Section, Feyaad was awarded the Juan Linz Prize for Best Dissertation in the Comparative Study of Democracy and the Best Fieldwork Award. The Juan Linz Prize is awarded to the best dissertation on democratization and the development and dynamics of democracy and authoritarianism. The Best Fieldwork Award reconigizes dissertations which involve especially innovative and difficult fieldwork in the comparative study democracy.
Feyaad’s dissertation studies a fundamental question in political science: how to create an inclusive political system in multi-ethnic societies. Specifically, he studies the origins of the political exclusion of Indian Muslims, when they can break out of this exclusion, and why – even when they break out – they often struggle to sustain power. A central finding of the dissertation is that when Muslims gain political power, it can consolidate Hindu voters in opposition and fragment the Muslim community on sub-identities, making it difficult for them to maintain power.
Feyaad Allie joined the department in 2023 as a post-doctoral fellow before his tenure-track appointment. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University and a BA in Government from Dartmouth College. His research centers on democracy, identity, and intergroup relations with a regional focus in South Asia, primarily India. Feyaad is currently working on a book manuscript based on this dissertation work.