Fr. Robert Dowd, C.S.C. is associate professor of Political Science and founding director of the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Dowd received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include African politics, ethnic politics, and the impact of religion on development outcomes and political institutions. He is the author of Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa (Oxford, 2015). The Ford Family Program, founded by Dowd in 2008, is part of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Its mission is to integrate teaching, research, and grassroots community engagement in parts of the world where extreme poverty continue to be a major challenge. Fr. Dowd has conducted research on persecuted Christian communities in Nigeria, Sudan, and Kenya.

Learn: Christian responses to persecution in Nigeria | Sudan | Kenya