Luke N. Condra (Ph.D. Political Science, Stanford University, 2010) is Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and a faculty affiliate of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for Security Studies, the Ford Institute for Human Security, and the Governance Group, at the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests are in international security and political violence. His current work, situated in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, focuses on elements of state building in areas characterized by conflict. Prior to coming to Pitt, he spent a year as an Empirical Studies of Conflict Postdoctoral Scholar at UC-San Diego. At Pitt, he coordinates the Symposium on Political Violence, a speaker series sponsored by GSPIA, the Department of Political Science, and the Ridgway Center. He is working on a project that develops and tests a theory of African ethnic group involvement in civil war over the past quarter century. The project uses geographic, political, and economic data collected for hundreds of ethnic groups and their participation in rebel groups fighting in different conflicts against the state. Other research is published (with Jacob N. Shapiro) in the American Journal of Political Science.
