Dr Roessler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary as well as the Director of the Center for African Development (CAD) at the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations (ITPIR) at W&M. His research and teaching offer new perspectives on conflict, state-building, and development, with a focus on the region of sub-Saharan Africa, where he has conducted extensive field research. He has written two books. The first, Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. The second book, co-authored with Harry Verhoeven of Georgetown University-SFSQ, Why Comrades Go To War: Liberation Politics and the Outbreak of Africa’s Deadliest Conflict, is forthcoming with Hurst Publishers. New research projects address other big questions in the study of development, including: the effects of the mobile phone revolution on women’s empowerment; the impact of Chinese investment and development projects on state capacity and legitimacy; and the causes and consequences of regional inequality in Africa.
He will be presenting a paper titled, "The Empty Panorama: Colonialism, Primary Commodities, and Spatial Inequality in Africa."