Rachel M. Gisselquist, a political scientist, is a Research Fellow with UNU-WIDER. Her research focuses on ethnic politics and group-based inequality, state fragility, governance, and democracy and democratic transition, with particular attention to sub-Saharan Africa. Her recent work is published in various journals and edited volumes, including The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Social Indicators Research, and World Development. She is the editor/co-editor of five journal special issues dealing with governance and state fragility and co-author of the first two editions of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. She holds a PhD from MIT and a MPP from Harvard University.