Nicola de Jager (PhD in Political Science, University of Pretoria) is Chair and associate professor at the Department of Political Science. She is also the Director of the Centre for International and Comparative Politics (CICP). From January 2018 until December 2022, she served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Commonwealth and Comparative Politics. She is a C2 rated researcher with the National Research Foundation (NRF) and was a fellow of the African-Oxford (AfOx) programme at Oxford University. Formerly a research associate of the Transformation Research Unit (TRU); a research unit focused on projects dealing with transformations from autocracy to democracy and the reverse, conditions for the persistence of democracy, and the quality of government. Nicola has edited two books: South African Politics published by Oxford University Press and Friend or Foe? Dominant party systems in southern Africa (co-editor Prof. Pierre du Toit) published by UCT Press and the UNU Press. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Democratization, Journal of Modern African Studies, Third World Quarterly, Politikon, Taiwan Journal of Democracy and the Journal of Contemporary African Studies on topics of comparative politics, religion and politics, democratisation, South African politics, and southern African politics.