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Susan Dicklitch-Nelson

Professor of Government and Chair of the Government Department, Franklin & Marshall College

Dr. Dicklitch-Nelson's area of expertise is human rights, specifically LGBTI human rights and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Dicklitch-Nelson has published widely on human rights and democracy in Cameroon and Uganda, including a book called The Elusive Promise of Non-governmental Organizations in Africa: Lessons from Uganda (Palgrave/McMillan).

Dr. Dicklitch-Nelson's current research focuses on the F&M Global Barometer of Gay Rights (GBGR) which she co- developed with Berwood Yost, Director of the Center for Opinion Research at the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin & Marshall College. The GBGR tracks 29 indices of rights protection or repression of sexual minorities in 188 countries. Countries are categorized on a five-point scale as Persecutors, Intolerant, Resistant, Tolerant or Protecting, and given a grading score of A-F.

A strong advocate of civic engagement, Dr. Dicklitch-Nelson has served as an expert witness on human rights country conditions in Cameroon and Uganda in over 100 political asylum cases in Immigration Court in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. She teaches courses in African politics, human rights and asylum law. In Spring 2011, the U.S. News & World Report listed her Human Rights-Human Wrongs class as one of 10 classes that impact the outside world. Dr. Dicklitch-Nelson has developed high-impact experiential learning opportunities for students in Ghana, South Africa, Honduras, and Ecuador.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Government and Chair of the Government Department, Franklin & Marshall College