Abdourahmane Idrissa

Abdourahmane (Rahmane) Idrissa is a political scientist fast embracing history. His doctorate in political science, with a concentration on democratisation and political Islam in Africa, was obtained at the University of Florida. Idrissa’s research expertise ranges from issues of states, institutions and democratisation in Africa to Salafi radicalism in the Sahel and current projects on the history of state formation in Africa, with a focus both on the modern (Niger) and premodern eras (Songhay).

Before joining the ASCL, Idrissa has founded and run EPGA, a think tank in political economy in Niger, training students and coordinating projects based on methodologies of political economy analysis that focused on migration, youth employment and demography. In recent years, EPGA has worked in partnership with Clingendael on projects on migration, security issues and traditional governance in the Sahel borderlands.

Idrissa is also associated with the Niamey based social science laboratory LASDEL and is on the editorial board of the African Studies Quarterly, at the University of Florida.

Keywords: Africa, states and institutions, political Islam and political secularism, modern and premodern history.