Jennifer McCoy is Regent’s Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University and Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as Research Affiliate at CEU’s Democracy Institute in Budapest. She was named a 2024 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, one of 28 scholars nationwide who will explore political polarization and ways to strengthen American democracy.
A specialist on democratic erosion and polarization, mediation and conflict prevention, election processes and election observation, and Latin American politics, Dr. McCoy has authored or edited six books and dozens of articles, including International Mediation in Venezuela, co-authored with Francisco Diez (2011). Her latest volume is Polarizing Polities: A Global Threat to Democracy, co-edited with Murat Somer (2019).
She teaches courses on democratic erosion, comparative democratization, international norms, and Latin American politics. Dr. McCoy’s research program on Polarized Democracies examines the causes, consequences and solutions to polarized societies worldwide.
As director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program, she led numerous election monitoring missions and organized President Carter’s historic trips to Cuba in 2002 and 2011. McCoy is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and co-chair of the Atlanta chapter of the Scholar’s Strategy Network. Her next book, Depolarizing Politics and Remaking Democracy (with Murat Somer), is expected in 2025.