Risa Kitagawa
Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs; Faculty Affiliate, Global Resilience Institute; Faculty Affiliate, Global Asian Studies Program
Risa Kitagawa studies the politics of transitional justice and conflict legacies. Her broader interests include human rights violations, post-conflict processes, political narratives, and public opinion. Her research spans countries in East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America and uses a variety of methods, including survey experiments, text-as-data, process tracing, and interviews. Her scholarship has appeared in outlets such as The Journal of Politics, World Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, and Conflict Management & Peace Science.
For more information, visit https://www.risakitagawa.com/.- Measuring Political Narratives in African News Media: A Word Embeddings Approach https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/727593
- Justice as Fairness or Retribution? Citizen Reactions to Domestic Trials of Wartime Violence https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00223433221148223
- The Impact of Political Apologies on Public Opinion
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/impact-of-political-apologies-on-public-opinion/7B4BBB7F4E9790229E0C5E36B8A5B35A
- From Political Violence to Political Trust? How Transitional Justice Affects Citizen Views of Government
https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad013
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Education
PhD, Political Science
Stanford University
BA, International Relations and French
New York University -
Contact
617.373.4406 r.kitagawa@northeastern.edu Personal Website -
Address
927 Renaissance Park
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115 -
Office Hours
Spring 2025: On Leave
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Globalization and International Affairs
INTL 1101
Offers an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing global/international affairs. Examines the politics, economics, culture, and history of current international issues through lectures, guest lectures, film, case studies, and readings across the disciplines.
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Introduction to Comparative Politics
POLS 1155
Presents a comparative study of political organization and behavior in a range of countries beyond the United States. Topics includes political culture, political economy, governing institutions, leadership, and political participation.
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Seminar in Comparative Politics
POLS 7206
Focuses on major research paradigms within comparative politics, including political culture, structuralism, and rational choice. Examines major research fields in the discipline, including democratization, nationalism, ethnic politics, political economy, and political parties.
Revolution, Civil War, and Insurrection
INTL 3430
Explores various types of conflict settlements and their implications for peace and reconciliation. Why do civil wars break out in some places but not others? What does it take to start a revolution? Why do some conflicts last decades, and what can be done to mitigate their costs? Examines why civil conflicts begin, how they are fought, and how they end. Substantive topics include strategies of insurgency and counterinsurgency; the role of ethnicity, religion, and gender; and the relationship between economic factors and conflict. Students leverage fundamental concepts and theories in comparative politics to analyze civil conflicts in a wide range of country contexts.
