Sally Sharif, PhD
Welcome! I am a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of British Columbia and an incoming Assistant Professor of comparative politics at the College of the Holy Cross.
Previously, I was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame and the Simons Foundation Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University. I have a PhD in political science from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2021).
My work lies at the intersection of comparative politics, international relations, and political methodology. I examine how governments, international organizations, and third‑party states respond to political violence, whether through repression, cooption, containment, or various conflict resolution strategies. These strategies have long-term effects on post-conflict states, which I explore using multi-method research designs. I lived most of my life under an authoritarian regime and, in my recent work, have explained the complex ways through which repression incites or subdues political violence.
In my published work, I have explained civil war onset and duration, post-conflict consolidation of state power, and the impact of international involvement on civil war recurrence. My work has appeared in Conflict Management and Peace Science; International Peacekeeping; Political Violence and Terrorism; and Territory, Politics, Governance, among others. My policy analysis has been published by The Conversation, The Washington Post, the Peace Accords Matrix Policy Brief Series, and Political Violence at a Glance. See my Google Scholar page here.
I speak seven languages and have done field research in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Outside academia, I am a triathlete and am deeply concerned by environmental degradation, which is apparent first and foremost in our mountains and lakes.