13 Facts About Nic Cheeseman

Nic Cheeseman is a British political scientist and professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham.

Nic Cheeseman was elected as a Cox Fellow at New College, but left in 2006 to take up the position of associate professor of African politics at Jesus College, Oxford.

Nic Cheeseman served as the director of Oxford's African Studies Centre, before moving to the University of Birmingham in January 2017 to become the professor of democracy and international development.

Nic Cheeseman has held a number of visiting professorships, including at Sciences Po, the University of Cape Town, and the Australian National University.

Nic Cheeseman subsequently broadened his writing to look at democracy and elections globally, writing Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective with Paul Chaisty and Tim Power, and How to Rig an Election with Brian Klaas.

In 2022, Nic Cheeseman established a research project on the history of African political thought.

Nic Cheeseman was co-editor of African Affairs between 2012 and 2016.

Between 2013 and 2017, Nic Cheeseman wrote a bi-weekly column for Kenya's Sunday Nation, covering topics such as elections, decentralization and corruption.

Nic Cheeseman regularly writes for The Economist, Le Monde, Financial Times, Newsweek, the Washington Post, New York Times, and the BBC.

In 2020, Nic Cheeseman was part of a team that founded the Resistance Bureau, an international webinar that aims to promote freedom and resist repression.

In 2019, Nic Cheeseman won the Joni Lovenduski Prize of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom for outstanding professional achievement by a mid-career scholar.

In 2022, Nic Cheeseman was nominated for the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for How to Rig an Election, and was awarded the Josiah Mason Award for Academic Advancement, the University of Birmingham.

Nic Cheeseman has been appointed to a number of different positions with international institutions, including being a member of the Advisory Board of the European Democracy Hub: and a member of the International Advisory Council of the Afrobarometer.