Dr Florian G Kern is Associate Professor in Political Science and 125th Anniversary Fellow at the Department of Political Science and International Studies. He is also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Department of Methodology, London School of Economics, and an Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford (starting October 1, 2026). Previously, he was a Reader (Associate Professor) at the Department of Government and the Co-Director of the Africa Special Interest Group (ASIG), the hub for interdisciplinary research on Africa at the University of Essex, as well as Director of Impact at the department. He received his PhD from the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz, and also holds an M.A. from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University.
His main research interest lies in comparative politics, governance, the political economy of development, and conflict, with a regional focus on Africa and indigenous North America. He employs a variety of approaches, combining applied qualitative and mixed methods, surveys, experiments, case studies, and fieldwork. With colleagues, he leads on the Multilingualism, Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa project (MCCRA), funded by an ESRC Large Research Grant (2023-2027). His project on "Exploring the Re-Analysis and Recycling of Qualitative Data with Machine Learning" (2026-2028) with Chris Arnold, re-analysing secondary qualitative data, e.g. on resilience in Africa, is funded by the ESRC. His research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Governance, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Peace Research, Research & Politics, the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and others.
Since 2024, he is on the research committee of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), one of the British Academy's BIRI. Since 2025, he also serves on the Economic and Social Research Council's Assessor College, and on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Political Science.
In recent years, his research has been generously supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the British Academy, the ESRC Global Challenges Research Fund, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF), the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
With Mwita Chacha and others, he co-founded the International Politics in Africa research network (IPIA), a group of scholars and practitioners engaged in the empirical study and understanding of how African societies, citizens, governments, supranational institutions, and non-governmental organisations experience international politics. Those interested in joining the network are welcome to in touch with Dr Kern.