Biography

Dr. Gloria Yayra A. Ayee is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and a Lecturer at the Harvard Extension School. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she works with the IARA Project, leading the "Global Justice, Truth-Telling, and Healing" study.

Dr. Ayee is a political scientist with expertise in behavior and identity politics, and race and ethnic politics. Her research focuses on human rights, transitional justice, truth and reconciliation commissions, political reconciliation, race and civil rights policy, African politics, American politics, comparative politics, political institutions, gender and politics, media policy and politics, politics and popular culture, and immigrant political incorporation. At Harvard University, she teaches courses on global ethnic politics; race, film, and American politics; transitional justice and truth commissions; African politics; and race and public policy. Dr. Ayee has been recognized for her teaching and is the recipient a numerous teaching awards. She is a 2023-2024 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Education Ambassador. 

Dr. Ayee is an affiliated faculty member with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a faculty associate with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She was previously a lecturer, postdoctoral fellow, and Harvard College Fellow in the Department of Government at Harvard University. Prior to her appointments at Harvard, Dr. Ayee was Guest Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton College (IL).

Dr. Ayee earned her Ph.D. in Political Science and a Graduate Certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University. She also holds an M.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Liberal Studies, both from Duke University. She received her B.A. in English Literature from Dordt University.

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Ayee is the co-editor of Gender Diversity and Inclusion: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives (2023, Lexington Books), Global Perspectives on Women's Leadership and Gender (In)Equality (2020, Palgrave Macmillan) and Women's Human Rights in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture (2020, Lexington Books). She is the co-author of “White House, Black Mother: Michelle Obama and the Politics of Motherhood as First Lady” (published in Politics & Gender in 2019) and  “Race, Power, and Knowledge: Tracing the Roots of Exclusion in the Development of Political Science in the United States” (published in Politics, Groups, and Identities in 2016), which examines the complex relationship between racial ideologies and the development of the discipline of political science in the United States. Dr. Ayee's current research focuses on theories of justice and political reconciliation, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, and truth and reconciliation processes around the world.

Dr. Ayee’s doctoral dissertation, entitled Restorative Justice and Political Forgiveness: A Comparative Analysis of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, is a comparative, cross-national study of truth commissions in countries that have used these quasi-judicial institutions to pursue justice and promote national reconciliation following a period of civil unrest marked by severe human rights abuses. Her research seeks to determine why there has been a proliferation of truth commissions around the world in recent years, and whether the perceived effectiveness of these commissions is real and substantial. Her work considers the institutional design and composition of truth commissions, as well as the roles that these commissions play in the democratic transformation of nations with a history of civil conflict and human rights abuses.

Last Updated: April 2024