Elise Roberts, a PhD candidate in political science, received a research grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation. The grant’s funds will go towards supporting Roberts’s dissertation research, “Aiding War or Developing Peace? International Aid and the Breakdown of Post-Conflict Peace,” which examines the effect of foreign aid in post-conflict states and the processes of conflict relapse.

Roberts is a political scientist who focuses on comparative politics and international relations. Her interests reside in civil war, post-conflict reconstruction, foreign aid, and governance. During her undergraduate coursework, Roberts spent time studying international institutions and post-conflict reconstruction in Kigali, Rwanda. With the Smith Richardson grant, Roberts’s PhD fieldwork will take her to three African cities: Freetown, Sierra Leone; Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire; and Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science, will serve as the principal investigator for the project.

The Smith Richardson Foundation was established by H. Smith Richardson and his wife Grace Jones Richardson in 1935. The Foundation aims to contribute to important public debates and to address serious public policy challenges facing the United States. In support of this goal, the Foundation supports scholars and organizations that promote international security and domestic public policy. 

04/23/19