Nic Lyon

Nicholas Lyon is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Stanford University. His research addresses the politics of urbanization, ethnicity, and social change in the Global South, with a particular regional focus on East Africa. In his dissertation, Unpacking Urban: City Size and the Political Effects of Urbanization in Africa, he draws attention to the rapid growth of smaller urban centers in Africa and assesses how city size is linked to the social and political attitudes of residents. 

Nic’s research has been published in Comparative Political Studies and the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media. Prior to his time at Stanford, he worked as an associate at IDinsight in Nairobi, Kenya. He received an M.Sc. degree in African Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and B.A. degrees in Political Science and Economics from Columbia University.