​Paul Friesen

​Paul Friesen is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Global Democracy at Cornell University.

He completed Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and is a former Dissertation Year Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. His research and teaching interests include democracy in the global context as well as elections, political parties, and political behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa. His dissertation focuses on partisanship and ideology in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

As a development professional and political analyst at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, he also supported the Southern and East Africa team in winning and managing democracy-strengthening grants in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Prior to that, he completed internships with The Fund for Peace, World Vision International, and Joint Aid Management in Washington, D.C. He also served as a research assistant for the Afrobarometer.