Niloufer Siddiqui, assistant professor of political science at the University at Albany, has received the 2024 Robert A. Dahl Award from the American Political Science Society for her book Under the Gun: Political Parties and Violence in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2022). The annual award is presented to an untenured scholar for their outstanding academic contributions on the subject of democracy. Under the Gun examines how Pakistani political parties that claim to be pro-democracy often engage in pro-violence and anti-democratic behaviors due to political incentives.
Dr. Siddiqui joined the faculty at the University at Albany within the State University of New York System in 2018, serving as an assistant professor in the department of political science within the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. She specializes in comparative politics and teaches several undergraduate and graduate courses on international relations and political violence. Outside of higher education, she serves as a non-resident fellow with The Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., and an expert advisory board member for the Islamabad Policy Research Institute in Pakistan.
Dr. Siddiqui is a magna cum laude graduate of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.