On April 24, award-winning MIT political science professor Mai Hassan came to Belmont Hill to speak about the ongoing conflict in South Sudan. Hassan spoke on the background of the war, how it affected the country’s population, and why it mattered to Belmont Hill. She highlighted the human suffering the conflict caused, and how the country had fallen due to poor leadership.
Hassan graduated from Harvard with a PhD in government before becoming a political science professor at the University of Michigan, and then she was hired by MIT, where she currently works as an associate professor of political science. In 2020, she published Regime Threats and State Solutions: Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya, which went on to receive the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Robert A. Dahl Award.
Hassan opened her chapel by discussing the background to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, noting the oppressive dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, as well as the division of the country’s armed forces. She was introduced by students Yusuf Ibrahim ’25 and Babakier Saed ’26, who each had family members in the affected areas. Both students discussed the impact the war had on their families and the destruction inflicted on their homes. Hassan explained the intricacies of the conflict, such as the different groups, as well as the power struggle that led them to open conflict. While doing so, she emphasised the humanitarian efforts that struggle to provide provisions to suffering citizens, many of whom are refugees who lack basic necessities.
