Uniting
Research and Policy

Mai Hassan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she her work examines topics that span across authoritarian regimes, bureaucracy and public administration, and contentious politics, with a particular focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Before joining MIT, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. Hassan was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, from 2019 to 2020. 

Mai Hassan is a distinguished scholar with numerous publications in leading academic journals and books. Hassan's first book, Regime Threats and State Solutions: Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya, garnered significant acclaim. It was named a Best Book of 2020 by Foreign Affairs, won the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Robert A. Dahl Award, and was honored with the African Studies Association’s 2021 Bethwell A. Ogot Award. Her notable other research includes “Conditionally Accepted: Communication, Coordination, and Surveillance in the Shadow of Repression” in American Journal of Political Science, “Who Gets Hired? Political Patronage and Bureaucratic Favoritism” (co-authored with Horacio Larreguy and Stuart Russell) in American Political Science Review, “Coordinated Dis-Coordination” in American Political Science Review, and “Dismantling or Reforging Clientelistic Ties? Sudan’s Civil Service Reform After Revolution” (co-authored with Ahmed Kodouda) in World Development. 

Mai Hassan earned her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 2014. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, receiving a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Political & Social Thought in 2008.