Dr. Gloria Yayra A. Ayee is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and a Lecturer (Government and International Relations) at the Harvard Extension School. Dr. Ayee is also a Senior Fellow with the IARA Project at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is affiliated faculty with the Ash Center, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a faculty associate with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Dr. Ayee is a political scientist with expertise in behavior and identity politics, and race and ethnic politics. Her research interests center on human rights, transitional justice, truth commissions, American politics, African politics, comparative politics, race and civil rights policy, political institutions, political reconciliation, media policy and politics, politics and popular culture, and immigrant political incorporation.
Dr. Ayee was previously a lecturer, postdoctoral fellow, and Harvard College Fellow in the Department of Government (FAS) at Harvard University. Prior to her appointments at Harvard, she was Guest Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton College (IL).
Dr. Ayee earned her Ph.D. in Political Science and a Graduate Certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University. She also holds an M.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Liberal Studies, both from Duke University. She received her B.A. in English Literature from Dordt University.
Dr. Ayee is the co-editor of Gender Diversity and Inclusion: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives (2023, Lexington Books), Global Perspectives on Women's Leadership and Gender (In)Equality (2020, Palgrave Macmillan), and Women's Human Rights in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture (2020, Lexington Books). She is the co-author of “White House, Black Mother: Michelle Obama and the Politics of Motherhood as First Lady” (published in Politics & Gender in 2019), and “Race, Power, and Knowledge: Tracing the Roots of Exclusion in the Development of Political Science in the United States” (published in Politics, Groups, and Identities in 2016), which examines the complex relationship between racial ideologies and the development of the discipline of political science in the United States.