Welcome!

My name is Salih, pronounced like “Sa-Lee-H.”  I am a Collegiate Assistant Professor in The College and a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at The University of Chicago. I am also a faculty affiliate with the Departments of Political Science and Sociology, as well as the Center for International Social Science Research (CISSR).

I am a comparative-historical scholar studying comparative political development, institutions and institutional change, and colonialism and long-run development, with a substantive focus on Africa. My research interests lie at the intersection of political science, sociology, and comparative history. My book, The Legacies of Liberation, examines political development following twentieth-century liberation struggles against settler-colonial and white-minority domination in Southern Africa. You can find more details about my book project here and my research here. I ask what explains the varied long-term political and social structural legacies of the historic revolutionary mobilizations from a comparative-historical perspective. I submitted my dissertation on this subject in August 2023 at Northwestern University, and you can see the dissertation’s preview in ProQuest, including the preface and extended abstract, here. My work has been published in the Studies in Comparative International Development, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, CEU Political Science Journal, and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research.

My research has been recognized and generously supported by fellowships from the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and the Center for International Social Science Research (CISSR) at The University of Chicago, the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University, APSA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Harry Frank Guggenheim (HFG) Foundation, the U.S. Bureau of Education, and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2023, with graduate training in Comparative-Historical Social Sciences. Previously, I earned an M.A. in Political Science, summa cum laude, from the University of Osnabrück in Germany, and a B.A. in Political Science, cum laude, from the University of Asmara in Eritrea, where I grew up.

In addition to extensive research travel, particularly in Southern Africa, I have lived in several countries across three continents, ranging from very poor and authoritarian (Eritrea) to affluent social democracies (Germany and Sweden) to a highly unequal, free-market plutocracy (the United States). This breadth of experience has shaped my comparative perspective on politics, institutions, and society.

September 2026, Chicago