Dr Florian G. Kern is Associate Professor (Reader) at the Department of Government, University of Essex, where he is also a fellow at the Michael Nicholson Centre for Conflict and Cooperation.
He received his PhD from the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz, and also holds an MA from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University.
His main research interest lies in comparative politics, especially the political economy of development, governance and conflict, with a regional focus on Africa and indigenous North America. His most recent work focuses on domestic sources of foreign policy formulation in Africa, multilingualism and conflict, land rights, as well as research transparency in qualitative methods.
His work has been published in leading journals such as Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Peace Research, Governance and others. He uses a variety of approaches, combining applied experimental and qualitative methods, surveys, case studies, and fieldwork. His work has been generously supported by the UK Economics and Social Research Council, the Bosch Foundation, the German Foundation for Peace Research and the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
Research
Between Cooperation and Conflict: Tracing the Variance in Relations of Traditional Governance Institutions and the State in Sub-Saharan Africa [With Katharina Holzinger and Daniela Kromrey]. 2023. In: Third World Quarterly, Early View, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2023.2213636.
Beyond Replication: Secondary Qualitative Data Analysis in Political Science. [with Katariina Mustasilta]. 2023. In: Comparative Political Studies 56(8), 1224-1256.
Judiciary Institutions and Violent Crime in American Indian Nations. [with Kristian Skrede Gleditsch and Rebecca Cordell]. 2023. In: Governance, Early View, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12756.
Explaining the Constitutional Integration and Resurgence of Traditional Political Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. [With Katharina Holzinger and Daniela Kromrey]. 2020. In: Political Studies 68(4), 973-995.
How to Know What Works in Alleviating Poverty: Learning from Experimental Approaches in Qualitative Research. [With Alexandra Hartman]. 2023. In: World Development 127 (March 2020). Contribution to "Symposium on Experimental Approaches in Development and Poverty Alleviation".
Measuring Institutional Variation Across American Indian Constitutions Using Automated Content Analysis. [With Rebecca Cordell, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, and Laura Saavedra-Lux]. 2023. In: Journal of Peace Research 57(6), 777-778.
Preregistering Qualitative Research: A Delphi Study. [With Tamarinde L. Haven, Timothy M. Errington, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Leonie van Grootel, Alan M. Jacobs, Rafael Piñeiro, Fernando Rosenblatt, Lidwine B. Mokkink]. Accepted for publication in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, DOI: 10.1177/1609406920976417.