Susanne D. Mueller

African Studies Center
Boston University
232 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Email: susannedmueller@gmail.com
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Susanne D. Mueller is a Research Affiliate at Boston University’s African Studies Center. Previously, she worked for the UN, its food agencies, and the World Bank on economic, agricultural and political development in most of the countries of Eastern and Southern Africa, Moldova, Ukraine, India and the Maldives, while based in Kenya, Tanzania, the UK, and the U.S.

Earlier, Mueller was an assistant professor/lecturer at the University of Nairobi and before that, taught at Princeton University while holding a faculty appointment at its Center for International Studies. Supported by post-doctoral and field research grants from Harvard, Princeton and the Social Science Research Council, she has published widely. Her 2008 “The Political Economy of Kenya’s Crisis” won the best article of the year award from the American Political Science Association’s African Politics Conference Group.

Mueller received a Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. from Smith College.

Awards

2008, “Best Article of the Year” Award from the African Politics Conference Group of the American Political Science Association (APSA), The International Political Science Association (IPSA) and the African Studies Association (ASA) for “The Political Economy of Kenya’s Crisis,” Journal of Eastern African Studies, July 2008, received 9 November 2009. One of journal’s “most cited” articles (see here)
See: https://africanpoliticsgroup.org/awards/

2010, Driscoll Award for Social Responsibility. Award from the Beaver Country Day School given annually “to a graduate who demonstrates a deep commitment to social equity and justice”. Received 10 May 2010.

Publications

Recent

Ethnicity and Violence: New Dynamics in Kenya’s Elections? (2022) Italian Institute for International Policy Studies.

Why did Kenyans elect Ruto as president? (2022) The Washington Post.

Academic

“The Devolution Para digm”, (2020). Under Review (R & R).

“High Stakes Ethnic Politics” (2020) in Nic Cheeseman, Karuti Kanyinga, and Gabrielle Lynch, eds. Handbook of Kenyan Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

“The Resilience of the Past: Government and Opposition in Kenya” (2014) Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études africaines 48 (2), 333-352. See pre-print here

“Kenya and the International Criminal Court (ICC): Politics, the Election and the Law” (2014) Journal of Eastern African Studies 8 (1), 25-42. See here

“The Political Economy of Kenya’s Crisis” (2012) in Dorina Bekoe, ed. Voting in Fear. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace.

“Dying To Win: Elections Political Violence and Political Decay” (2011) in David Gilles, ed. Elections in Dangerous Places: Democracy and the Paradoxes of Peacebuilding. Montreal: McGill Queens University Press. See here

“Dying to Win: Elections, Political Violence, and Institutional Decay in Kenya” (2011) Journal of Contemporary African Studies 29 (1), 99-117 See here

“Government and Opposition in Kenya” (2010) in Daniel Branch, Nic Cheeseman, and Leigh Gardner, eds. Our Turn to Eat: Politics in Kenya Since 1950. Berlin: Lit Verlag. See here

“The Political Economy of Kenya’s Crisis“. (2008) Journal of Eastern African Studies 2 (2), 185-210. See pre-print here

“Rural Development, Environmental Sustainability, and Poverty Alleviation: A Critique of Current Paradigms” (2006) DESA Working Paper No. 11 ST/ESA/2006/DWP/11 January 2006. New York: United Nations Division of Economic and Social Affairs.. See here

“Government and Opposition in Kenya, 1966–9” (1984) The Journal of Modern African Studies 22 (3), 399-427. See here

“Smallholder Production and Rural Development” (1982) Canadian Journal of African Studies 16, 617-27

“Barriers to the further development of capitalism in Tanzania: the case of tobacco” (1981) Capital and Class 15, 23-54.

“The Historical Origins of Tanzania’s Ruling Class” (1981) Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études 15 (3), 459 – 497.

“Retarded Capitalism in Tanzania” (1980) Socialist Register 17 (17).

Political Parties in Kenya: Patterns of Opposition and Dissent: 1919-1969. (1972) Ph.D. Princeton University.

Selected Non-Academic

“Life in the Time of Hamna and Social Distancing.” (2020) The Elephant. Nairobi, Kenya. May 8, 2020.

“The Diffusion of Violence in Kenya.” (2008) The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commentary, Online Forum, March 17, 2008.

The Politics of Nutrition Policy: The Search for Solutions that Fit the Nature of the Problem” World Bank, Health, Nutrition and Population Discussion Paper, HNP Discussion Paper no. 48287. in Marcela Natalicchio, Menno Mulder-Sibanda, James Garrett, Steve Ndegwa, Doris Voorbraak, eds. (2007) Carrots and Sticks:The Political Economy of Nutrition Policy Reforms. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

“Rural Development, Environmental Sustainability, and Poverty A lleviation: A Critique of Current Paradigms,” (2006) DESA Working Paper No. 11 ST/ESA/2006/DWP/11 January 2006. New York: United Nations Division of Economic and Social Affairs. See here

Vera Wilhelm and Susanne Mueller. (2003) “The Ingredients of Capacity Enhancement: Three Case Studies in Telecommunications” World Bank Institute Working Paper 28611, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. See pre-print here

Vera Wilhelm and Susanne D. Mueller, (2003) “Capacity Enhancement at the Institutional Level: Three Case Studies in Telecommunications“, Capacity Enhancement Briefs 33081, Sharing Best Practices and Lessons Learned, Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Working Papers

The Devolution Paradigm: A Theoretical Critique and the Case of Kenya” CPHR 6. (2019) Boston, Massachusetts: African Studies Center, Boston University.

Ethnic Politics in Kenya, CPHR 5, (2017) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

The Resilience of the Past: Government and Opposition in Kenya, CP H R 2, (2014) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

Kenya and the International Criminal Court: Politics, the Election, and the Law, CPHR 1, (2013) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

Dying to Win: Elections, Political Violence, and Institutional Decay in Kenya, WP 263, (2010) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

The Politics of Violence in Kenya, WP 257, (2008) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

Government and Opposition in Kenya, 1966—1969, WP 85, (1983) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

The Historical Origins of Tanzania’s Ruling Class, WP 35, (1980) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

The Agrarian Question in Tanzania: The Case of Tobacco, WP 32, (1980) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

Landing the Middle Peasantry: Narodism in Tanzania, WP 20, (1979) Boston, Massachusetts : African Studies Center, Boston University.

Media

Tessler, Melissa (2018) Despite recent achievements, many challenges ahead for the International Criminal Court. Open Canada. https://www.opencanada.org/features/despite-recent-achievements-many-challenges-ahead-international-criminal-court/

Singal, Jess (2016) “Why There Probably Won’t Be Much Election Violence.” New York Magazine.
https://www.thecut.com/2016/11/why-there-probably-wont-be-much-election-violence.html

Heller, Kevin Jon (2013) “Mueller on Kenya and the ICC.” Opinio Juris
http://opiniojuris.org/2014/02/27/mueller-kenya-icc/

Khazan, Olga (March 2013) “What Causes Some Elections to go Violent“. The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/what-causes-some-elections-to-go-violent/273728/

Radio interview with Jamaica’s “The Evening Edition,” on Extra-Judicial Killings in Kenya, September 2009.

Frankel, Glenn (1984) “Kenya Struggles to Break Africa’s Cycle of Hopelessness” Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/11/18/kenya-struggles-to-break-africas-cycle-of-hopelessness/61ede761-df67-477a-a61a-ea16d8e7003b/