Aili Mari Tripp is Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also director of the Center for Research on Gender and Women. Her teaching and research interests are in African politics, comparative politics, women and politics and gender studies in an international context.

She co-authored with Isabel Casimiro, Joy Kwesiga and Alice Mungwa African Women's Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes (2009). She is also author of Museveni's Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime (2010), Women and Politics in Uganda (2000) and Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Tanzania (1997). She is currently working on another book entitled, Gender, Power and Peacemaking in Africa. Tripp has edited and co-edited numerous other collections. She has published articles and book chapters on women’s movements and global feminism, civil society in Africa, gender and politics in Africa, women’s rights in post-conflict African countries, and on democratization and semi-authoritarianism in Africa.

Tripp co-edits a book series with Stanlie James on Women in Africa and the Diaspora for the University of Wisconsin Press. She is vice president/president-elect of the African Studies Association, starting as vice president in November 2010. She has been a vice president of the American Political Science Association and has served on the boards of the African Studies Association, American Political Science Association, National Council for Research on Women, Tanzania Studies Association, University of Wisconsin Press, and numerous other journals and book series.

Tripp has served as an expert consultant for United Nations Human Rights Council, UNESCO, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the World Bank, USAID, US State Department, China-Africa Development Fund, the Finnish Foreign Ministry, and numerous other agencies.

Email: tripp@polisci.wisc.edu