Lindsay Benstead is Professor of Politics and Global Studies and Director of the Middle East Studies Center (MESC), and is the College of Urban & Public Affairs Researcher of the Year.
Dr. Benstead teaches courses on Middle East and North African politics, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and research methods. Previously, she served as Fellow in the Middle East Program and the Women’s Global Leadership Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC (2018-2019 & 2022) and Kuwait Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, a research university in Paris (2016).
Dr. Benstead has conducted surveys in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Malawi, and Kenya, and contributes to the Transitional Governance Project. Her research on identity politics, politics and gender, public opinion, and survey methodology has appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Governance, and Foreign Affairs. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and served as a doctoral fellow at Yale University and a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University.