{"id":2,"date":"2012-09-04T13:39:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T17:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/template\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:31:31","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\r\n\t
\r\n\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\n

Dr. Sebastian Elischer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Associate Professor of Political Science<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Areas of Interest\/Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

democratization<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

political institutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

violent extremism<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sub-Saharan Africa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PhD Jacobs University Bremen<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

MIS George Washington University<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

MA Free University Berlin<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

BA University of Wales\/ Aberystwyth<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sebastian Elischer’s work analyzes the interplay between identities and institutions. He is particularly interested in how identities shape and affect democratization and other political dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is one of the co-editors of the African Studies Review<\/a> and serves on the advisory board of the Journal of Comparative Politics<\/a>. His articles have appears in numerous disciplinary and area studies journals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In his first book Sebastian Elischer examined the salience of ethnic identities at the aggregate level of political parties in sub-Saharan Africa. His subsequent monograph Political Parties in Africa: Ethnicity and Party Formation<\/a> was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. It argues that the conventional conception of African parties as ethnic parties is wrong. Instead the African political landscape is considerably more diverse. Whereas ethnic parties dominate in some countries, non-ethnic parties have become the norm in others.\u00a0His second book Salafism and Political Order in Africa<\/a> examines the effect of informal religious regulation on violent Islamic extremism in areas of weak statehood.It was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. In it Elischer provides a comparative analysis of how different West and East African states have engaged with fundamentalist Muslim groups between the 1950s and today. In doing so, he establishes a causal link between state-imposed organizational gatekeepers in the Islamic sphere and the absence of homegrown jihadi Salafism. Foreign Affairs rated the book as one of the best books in 2022<\/a>. A podcast can be accessed here<\/a>. Elischer received an advance contract with Cambridge for his third monograph examining the recent coup surge in francophone Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the 2021-2022 academic year, Elischer was a research fellow at the Kellogg Institute of International Affairs at the University of Notre Dame<\/a>. There, he conducted research on post-1990 military coup outcomes. He regularly contributes to public debates on Africa. His most recent commentaries appeared in The Conversation,\u00a0<\/a> Foreign Affairs<\/a> and the Monkey Cage<\/a>. Between 2015 and 2017 he serves as\u00a0 co-editor of the Africa Yearbook<\/a>. He has also provided extensive advice to the Department of Defense and various European government agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2025:Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa<\/a>. Political Studies Quarerley <\/i>(forthcoming).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

2024: Weapons of the Weak: How African States Counteract Homegrown Jihadi Salafism<\/a>, Journal for Global Security Studies 9:3.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

2023 (with Justin Hoyle): Electoral contests in the aftermath of military coups: how domestic constraints motivate praetorian conduct<\/a>, Contemporary Politics 30:1, 44-46<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

2022 (with Narrelle Gilchrist and Amanda Edgell): Tribeless and Democratic Youth? Political Attitudes of Kenyan University Students Toward Ethnicity and Democracy.<\/a> Canadian Journal of African Studies<\/em> 56 (3): 589-616.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

2021: Salafism and Political Order in Africa<\/em><\/a>. New York: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact Information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Email:selischer@ufl.edu<\/a>
\nPhone: (352) 273-2359
\nOffice: 212 Anderson Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Mailing address:
\n212 Anderson Hall
\nP.O. Box 117325
\nGainesville, FL 32611-7325<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":585,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/selischer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}