Amanda Edgell’s doctoral dissertation expands on research she conducted for her honors thesis as a student at Appalachian State University: investigating the performance of female members of the Ugandan parliament.

Edgell is pursuing her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Florida. She decided to pursue her doctoral education to help her find ways to study and answer the questions that arose during her field studies in sub-Saharan Africa while she was an undergraduate student.

She earned a Political Science (BS) - International and Comparative Politics degree from Appalachian in 2008.

Questions she has developed in her field studies are: why are certain countries more democratic than others, why do nondemocratic leaders adopt democratic institutions, how and why do voters participate in elections, and how do institutions and regime types affect gender equality in government?

Edgell’s experiences at Appalachian and in her travels continue to draw her attention to international and comparative politics.

Edgell studied abroad in Uganda for a semester and South Africa for a summer during her undergraduate studies. There, she started to study African politics, a topic she has now built a career on.

“It allowed me to establish myself as an international scholar and prepared me to work on the African continent in both research and development,” Edgell said. “The value of my undergraduate education at Appalachian cannot be understated when it comes to preparing me for graduate studies.”

While at Appalachian, Edgell also assisted with high school and middle school model United Nations conferences through the International Relations Association.

After completing her doctoral work, Edgell said she plans to live and work in sub-Saharan Africa as a policy researcher and international development consultant.