Susan Stokes is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago and director of the Chicago Center on Democracy. She is a founding member of Bright Line Watch, an organization that tracks threats to democracy in the United States. Previously, she taught at Yale, where she served as chair of the Department of Political Science and of the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies.
Stokes’s publications pose questions such as: (1) Why do politicians sometimes renege on major campaign promises, and why do voters not necessarily punish them for their inconsistency? and, (2) Why does discrimination and repression sometimes encourage, rather than discourage, citizens from voting, protesting, and taking part in other forms of collective action? Stokes is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received Russell Sage Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim, and American Philosophical Society fellowships. Her books and articles have been recognized with numerous prizes.
Her multicountry study project, “How Would-Be Autocrats Attack Democratic Culture — And How to Rebuild It,” aims to defend democracy by illuminating how would-be autocrats attack not just democratic institutions, but democratic culture.
