Dr Alexandra Hartman

Associate Professor in Political Science
Room: 2.05, 36-38 Gordon Square
Email: alexandra.hartman@ucl.ac.uk
Website

Biography

I am an Associate Professor in Political Science. I joined the Department in 2016. I studied Political Science (MA, PhD) at Yale University, and International Relations (BA) at Brown University. I am a member of Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the Land Politics Working Group (joint with LSE).

Research

My research focuses on the political economy of institutions in fragile states. My work uses a range of research designs and data collection strategies, including large-scale randomised control trials, surveys, and in-depth interviews and observation. My current projects encompass three main themes:

First, I study how changing property rights institutions shape politics, including dispute resolution, and economic outcomes, such as the exploitation of natural resources, in Liberia.

Second, I explore how economic policies shape intrahousehold politics. I have two ongoing projects in Myanmar and Côte d’Ivoire that examine changing access to women’s property rights and changes in political, social and economic dynamics within households.

Finally, I also study the politics of forced displacement, including the institutional and individual factors that shape decision-making during humanitarian crises using microlevel data from West Africa and the Middle East.

Publications

Journal articles

Hartman, A. C., Morse, B. S. and Weber, S. (2021) ‘Violence, Displacement, and Support for Internally Displaced Persons: Evidence from Syria’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 65(10), pp. 1791–1819.
Christensen, D., Hartman, A. C. and Samii, C. (2021) ‘Citizen Monitoring Promotes Informed and Inclusive Forest Governance in Liberia’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(29).
Slough T., Rubenson, D., Rodriguez, R. L. F. A., Del Carpio, M. B., Buntaine, M. T., Christensen, D., Cooperman, A., Eisenbarth, S., Ferraro, P., Graham, L., Hartman A. C., Kopas, J., McLarty A. S., Rigterink A. S., Samii, C., Seim, B., Urpelainen, J., and Zhang, B. (2021) ‘Adoption of Community Monitoring Improves Common Pool Resource Management across Contexts’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(29).
Christensen, D., Hartman, A. C. and Samii, C. (2021) ‘Legibility and External Investment: An Institutional Natural Experiment in Liberia’, International Organization, 75(4), pp. 1087–1108.
Hartman, A. C., Blair, R. A. and Blattman, C. (2021) ‘Engineering Informal Institutions: Long-Run Impacts of Alternative Dispute Resolution on Violence and Property Rights in Liberia’, The Journal of Politics, 83(1), pp. 381–389.
Hartman, A. C. and Morse, B. S. (2018) ‘Wartime Violence, Empathy, and Altruism: Evidence from the Ivorian Refugee Crisis in Liberia’, British Journal of Political Science, 50(2), pp. 731–755.
Blair, R. A., Blattman, C. and Hartman, A. C. (2017) ‘Predicting Local-level Violence’, Journal of Peace Research, 52(4), pp. 298–312.
Blattman, C., Hartman, A. C. and Blair, R. A. (2014) ‘How to Promote Order and Property Rights under Weak Rule of Law? An Experiment in Changing Dispute Resolution Behavior through Community Education’, American Political Science Review, 108(1), pp. 100-120.

Teaching

I teach modules at the undergraduate and postgraduate level on research methods, fieldwork and the political economy of migration. I supervise PhD students studying forced displacement, property rights, experiments, and intra-household bargaining.