I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. 

My research centers on authoritarian politics, institutions, and elite powersharing. My book, Constraining Dictatorship: From Personalized Rule to Institutionalized Regimes (Cambridge University Press, 2020), examines how executive constraints become established in dictatorships, particularly within constitutions and presidential cabinets. My new book project focuses on autocratic backsliding and executive aggrandizement in non-democracies. I have also published articles on authoritarian ruling parties, term limit evasion, and leadership succession. My work takes a game-theoretic approach to comparative authoritarianism, I have a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, and I am always interested in finding new and creative ways to collect data on authoritarian institutions.

My work has been published in the British Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Theoretical Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Columbia Law Review, and Studies in Comparative International Development. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and also hold a M.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley.

Check out the Formal Theory Virtual Workshop here!

Contact:
ameng@virginia.edu
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Office: S284 Gibson Hall
University of Virginia
Department of Politics
1540 Jefferson Park Ave
Charlottesville, VA 22903