The Expert is an Associate Professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University and the Director of the African Studies Program. She is a Political Scientist with a particular interest in citizenship, migration and political development in Africa. She is the author of Making Citizens in Africa: Ethnicity, Gender and National Identity in Ethiopia (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and her other publications have focused on the role of political institutions in addressing conflict based largely on ethnic and language identities.
political violence, education systems, LGBTQI issues; child abuse; sexual abuse/assault; gender-based violence/domestic violence; forced marriage; human trafficking; FGM/FGC; Likelihood of destitution or homelessness; ethnic, religious, or tribal discrimination or persecution; forced conscription/refoulment; ex-combatant reintegration; land issues; criminal deportees; risk of torture or political persecution; risk from state actors, risk from non-state actors; risk of retaliation; sufficiency of protection; possibility of safe internal relocation; healthcare access; health systems capacity; mental illness; HIV/AIDS; specialized medical services
The Expert has served as an expert in written and telephonic cases since 2006.
Making Citizens in Africa: Ethnicity, Gender and National Identity in Ethiopia, Cambridge University Press, 2013 (finalist for best book in Citizenship given by Wayne State University Press, 2015)
Opalo, Ken Ochieng’ and Lahra Smith, “Ideology and Succession Politics in Ethiopia: Solving the Problem of Autocratic Leadership Turnover” Democratization, May 21, 2021 doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2021.1929178.
Carruth, Lauren, Carlos Martinez, Lahra Smith, Katharine M. Donato, Carlos Piñones-Rivera, James Quesada, on behalf of the Migration and Health in Social Context Working Group, “Structural vulnerability: migration and health in social context,” BMJ Global Health, April 1, 2021 doi: 6:e005109. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005109.
Smith, Lahra, Douglas A. Howard, Mark Giordano, Nili Sarit Yossinger, Lara Kinne, and Susan F.
Martin, “Local Integration and Shared Resource Management in Protracted Refugee Camps: Findings from a Study in the Horn of Africa,” Journal of Refugee Studies, Feb. 28, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez010
Koon, Adam D., Lahra Smith, David Ndetei,Victoria Mutiso and Emily Mendenhall, "Nurses’
Perceptions of Universal Health Coverage and its implications for the Kenyan health sector," Critical Public Health, July 2016.
Mendenhall, Emily, Gitonga Isaiah, Bernadette Nelson, Abednego Musau, Adam D. Koon, Lahra
Smith, Victoria Mutiso and David Ndetei, “Nurses Perceptions of Mental Health Care in Primary Care Settings in Kenya,” Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research Policy, and Practice, July 2016.
Smith, Lahra, “A Disturbance or a Massacre? The Consequences of Electoral Violence in Ethiopia,” in
Voting in Fear: Electoral Violence in sub-Saharan Africa edited by Dorina Bekoe, Washington, DC: USIP Press Books, 2012.
Smith, Lahra, “Explaining Violence after Recent Elections in Ethiopia and Kenya,” Democratization,
16, 5, October, 2009, 867-897.