Dr Rebecca Tapscott
- Senior Lecturer in International Relations (Political & International Studies)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191Biography
Rebecca Tapscott is a political scientist whose work studies how authoritarian power is produced and contested. Her main research interests include how the state produces and projects political power; the relationship between gender, citizenship, and state authority; and how these processes can be studied ethically—as well as the politics of how these determinations is made. Her work has focused largely on Uganda, with a broader interest how these processes unfold in the so-called “global South”. Rebecca is the author of "Arbitrary States: Social control and modern authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda" (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Before joining Glasgow in 2024, Rebecca held a post-doc and then an Ambizione Research Fellowship at the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy (2017-2023), and then a Lecturer at York from 2023-24. Rebecca has also held Visiting Fellowships at the London School of Economics, Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa and at the University of Edinburgh’s Politics and International Relations Department. She holds a PhD from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is a recipient of the Fletcher School’s Alfred Rubin Prize in International Law (2011) and the International Studies Association’s Carl Beck award for innovative research on emergent international concerns (2017).
Rebecca is a member of the UK Young Academy (2024-2029). She is also the Reviews Editor at Civil Wars, an Associate Editor at Research Ethics, and a Board Member of the International Studies Review.
Rebecca is interested in supervising PhD studies working on authoritarianism, political violence, gender, and research ethics, especially from a critical perspective.
Research interests
- Authoritarianism
- Political violence
- Policing and vigilantism
- Gender, especially masculinities
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Research ethics and its regulation
Research groups
- International Relations
Publications
Prior publications
Articles
Rebecca Tapscott, Daniel Rincón Machón, (2024) Procedural ethics for social science research: Introducing the Research Ethics Governance dataset Journal of Peace Research (doi: 10.1177/00223433241249352); source: Crossref
Rebecca Tapscott, Eliza Urwin, (2024) The Origins and Legacies of Unpredictability in Rebel-Incumbent Rule Civil Wars (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2024.2302731)(issn: 1369-8249)(issn: 1743-968X); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Rebecca Tapscott, Daniel Rincón Machón, (2023) 25 Years of Civil Wars: Identifying Key Developments Through the Reviews Section Civil Wars (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2023.2253617)(issn: 1369-8249)(issn: 1743-968X); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Rebecca Tapscott, Daniel Rincón Machón, (2023) Reviews, Otherwise: Introducing the New Reviews Section of Civil Wars Civil Wars (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2023.2253618)(issn: 1369-8249)(issn: 1743-968X); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Anna Macdonald, Arthur Owor, Rebecca Tapscott, (2023) Explaining youth political mobilization and its absence: the case of Bobi Wine and Uganda’s 2021 election Journal of Eastern African Studies (doi: 10.1080/17531055.2023.2235661); source: Crossref
Rebecca Tapscott, (2023) Vigilantes and the State: Understanding Violence through a Security Assemblages Approach Perspectives on Politics (doi: 10.1017/S1537592721001134); source: Crossref
Rebecca Tapscott, (2021) How Insurgency Begins: Rebel Group Formation in Uganda and Beyond. By Janet I. Lewis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 300p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper. Perspectives on Politics (doi: 10.1017/S1537592721000347); source: Crossref
Rebecca Tapscott, (2020) Militarized masculinity and the paradox of restraint: mechanisms of social control under modern authoritarianism International Affairs (doi: 10.1093/ia/iiaa163)(issn: 0020-5850)(issn: 1468-2346); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Francis Abonga, Raphael Kerali, Holly Porter, Rebecca Tapscott, (2020) Naked Bodies and Collective Action: Repertoires of Protest in Uganda’s Militarised, Authoritarian Regime Civil Wars (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2020.1680018); source: Crossref
Rebecca Tapscott, (2018) Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict‐affected northern Uganda Disasters (doi: 10.1111/disa.12274)(issn: 0361-3666)(issn: 1467-7717); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Rebecca Tapscott, (2017) The Government Has Long Hands: Institutionalized Arbitrariness and Local Security Initiatives in Northern Uganda Development and Change (doi: 10.1111/dech.12294)(issn: 0012-155X)(issn: 1467-7660); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Rebecca Tapscott, (2017) Local security and the (un)making of public authority in Gulu, Northern Uganda African Affairs (doi: 10.1093/afraf/adw040)(issn: 0001-9909)(issn: 1468-2621); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Rebecca Tapscott, (2016) Where the wild things are not: crime preventers and the 2016 Ugandan elections Journal of Eastern African Studies (doi: 10.1080/17531055.2016.1272283)(issn: 1753-1055)(issn: 1753-1063); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Book
Rebecca Tapscott, (2021) Arbitrary States: Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda Oxford University Press (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198856474.001.0001)(isbn: 0198856474)(isbn: 9780198856474)(isbn: 9780191889745); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Book section
Rebecca Tapscott, (2024) Institutionalized Arbitrariness as Autocratic Adaptability Autocratization in Contemporary Uganda: Clientelism, Coercion and Social Control ; source: Rebecca Tapscott
Other
Rebecca Tapscott, (2019) Conceptualizing Militias in Africa Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.834)(isbn: 9780190228637); source: Rebecca Tapscott
Report
Rebecca Tapscott, (2012) Understanding Breast “Ironing”: A Study of the Methods, Motivations, and Outcomes of Breast Flattening Practices in Cameroon ; source: Rebecca Tapscott
