Syeda ShahBano Ijaz

I am an Assistant Professor of Global Political Economy in the department of Diplomacy & World Affairs at Occidental College. In 2023, I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from University of California - San Diego (UCSD). My research is situated at the cusp of international development and comparative politics, and explores the strategic distributive politics of foreign aid delivery in developing countries. My work challenges the conventional wisdom that foreign aid undermines democratic development by drawing attention to a seemingly marginal but politically consequential process of last mile service delivery. Last mile services address bureaucratic and physical barriers that stand in the way for individual recipients to move beyond eligibility and obtain the benefits of foreign aid programs. I argue that the presence of high last mile hurdles in the form of bureaucratic costs and low physical mobility carve a significant role for local politicians in aid economies. Additionally, the salience of last mile services for poor voters mobilizes them to increase demands on representatives, allowing a localized form of accountability to emerge around the last mile.

Previously, I have been a Princeton Dissertation Scholar at the Bobst Center for Peace and Justice and a Dissertation Fellow with the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. I have also received the Oceanids Memorial Fellowship. Moreover, in recognition of my contributions to diversity in academia, I was selected as a Bouchet Scholar in 2021 and have also received a Doctoral Diversity Intitiative Writing Grant by the University of California. Additionally, my research has received support from the International Institute at UCSD, the Center for Peace and Security Studies at UCSD, the Friends of the International Center at UCSD, the American Institute of Pakistan Studies and the UCSD Sanford Lakoff Research Fellowship.

My current research focuses on Pakistan and I have accumulated two years of fieldwork experience in the country. Before joining UCSD, I completed an M.A. in Politics from New York University and an MS.c. in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford as a Commonwealth Scholar.

In 2017, I was a USIP Junior Peace Fellow at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Previously, I have consulted with the World Bank, UNICEF and the Adam Smith Institute.