Rachel M. McCleary is a senior research fellow and the director of the political economy of religion project at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Taubman Center. Her research focuses on how religious beliefs and practices influence productivity, economic growth, and the maintenance of political institutions such as democracy. She is currently working on a longitudinal study of religious competition, conversion, and syncretization in Guatemala from 1880 to the present. Ms. McCleary's work has appeared in numerous journals, and her books include
Seeking Justice: Ethics and International Affairs (Westview, 1992);
Dictating Democracy: Guatemala and the End of Violent Revolution (University Press of Florida, 1999, English and Spanish);
Global Compassion: Private Voluntary Organizations and U.S. Foreign Policy since 1939 (Oxford University Press, 2009), awarded the Skystone Ryan Research Prize 2010; and the
Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2010). While at AEI, Ms. McCleary's work will focus on the political economy of religion, particularly as it applies to Evangelicals.
Experience
- Senior Research Fellow, Taubman Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- Associate, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
- Associate Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
- Director, Religion, Political Economy, and Society Project, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 2001-2007
- Lecturer, Department of Government, Harvard University, 2002-2006
- Lecturer, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 1998
- Visiting Professor, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, 1998
- Adjunct Professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University, 1995-96
- Fulbright Research Scholar, Universidad Rafael Landivar, Guatemala, 1994
- Program Officer, U.S. Institute of Peace, 1992-94
- Lecturer, Department of Politics, Princeton University, 1989-92
- Visiting Professor, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 1986-89
Education
Ph.D., political theory and moral philosophy, University of Chicago
M.A., theological studies, Emory University
B.A., linguistics and Spanish, Indiana University
