David Dennis Laitin | |
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Born | 1945 (age 78–79) |
Education | Swarthmore College (B.A.), University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D.) |
Occupation | Political scientist |
Awards | Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science (2021) |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Stanford University |
Doctoral advisor | Ernst B. Haas |
Other academic advisors | Hanna Pitkin |
Doctoral students | Stathis Kalyvas |
David D. Laitin (born in 1945) [1] is the James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science in the School of Humanities and Science at Stanford University. [2] He is a comparative politics scholar who has written works on civil war, [3] ethnic identity, culture and nationalism. [4] He is known for his application of rational choice to the study of ethnic conflict, [3] and for bridging a gap between ethnography and rational choice. [5]
He was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in 2021. [6] He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. [7] Before joining Stanford University, he was a professor in the political science department at the University of Chicago. [7]
In 1986, he published a book about the Yoruba in Nigeria, Hegemony and Culture: The Politics of Religious Change Among the Yoruba. [7] Laitin studied Russian and lived with a Russian family in Estonia for a year. [7] The experiences formed the basis of his 1998 book Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. [7] In the 1990s and 2000s, Laitin published several highly influential works on ethnicity with James Fearon. [7] [4]
Laitin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1945. [4] He grew up in a Jewish family in Flatbush, Brooklyn. [8] [7] He is the grandson of émigrés from Russia and Austria. [7] In 1967, he was awarded an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College. [7] While at Swarthmore, he took a class alongside fellow students Margaret Levi and Peter Katzenstein, who would both go on to become prominent political scientists. [9]
He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of California at Berkeley, where he did his dissertation under the guidance of Ernst Haas, [2] Hanna Pitkin, [2] and Kenneth Waltz. [10] During his time at Berkeley, Laitin served with the Peace Corps in Somalia and Grenada. [7] Laitin has said that this decision was in part motivated by seeking to avoid the Vietnam draft. [9] Laitin's experiences in Somalia influenced his dissertation and his 1977 book Politics, Language and Thought: The Somali Experience. [7]