Sally Sharif

Assistant Professor

Political Science Department

Contact

ssharif@holycross.edu

Areas of Expertise

Comparative politics; civil war and political violence; peacebuilding; disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration; post-conflict state-building; authoritarian politics; Latin American politics; causal inference and quantitative methods

Education

The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Ph.D
Sally Sharif

Biography

Sally Sharif is an Assistant Professor of Political Science specializing in comparative politics and international relations. Her research examines how governments, international organizations, and other external actors respond to political violence and how strategies such as repression, co-optation, containment, and conflict resolution shape security and governance after civil war. Her current book project investigates why some armed groups return to war after participating in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs. Her research combines cross-national data, causal inference, archival research, and extensive fieldwork with ex-combatants and conflict-affected communities, particularly in Latin America. Before joining Holy Cross, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame.

Recent Publications

  • Sharif, Sally. 2026. “Why Do Armed Groups Return to War After Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration? Introducing the DDR-40 Dataset (1980–2020).” Journal of Conflict Resolution. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027261426874. 
  • Sharif, Sally, and Julio Cesar Zuluaga. 2026. “When Reintegration of Ex-Combatants Turns Deadly: The State’s Role in Preventing Post-Conflict Homicides.” International Interactions. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2026.2625722. 
  • Schwarz, Christopher, Sally Sharif, and Christian Oswald. 2026. “Sharpening Blunt Instruments: Exploiting Non-Linearities for Causal Identification.” International Studies Quarterly 70(2): sqag020. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqag020.
  • Sharif, Sally, Ilia Murtazashvili, and Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili. 2026. “Rebel Victory and Constitutional Change.” Public Choice 207(1–2): 297–319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-025-01261-w. 
  • Sharif, Sally, and Francy Carranza-Franco. 2025. “Delegative Peacebuilding: Explaining Post-Conflict Selective Violence.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 43(2): 157–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/07388942251336643. 
  • Sharif, Sally, and Madhav Joshi. 2025. “Territorial Consolidation After Rebel Victory: When Does Civil War Recur?” Territory, Politics, Governance 13(7): 920–940. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2023.2243996. 
  • Quinn, Jason M., T. David Mason, Mustafa Kirisci, and Sally Sharif. 2024. “Proto-Insurgency, Repression-Driven Contagion, and Civil War Onset.” Defence and Peace Economics 35(5): 601–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2023.2183346. 
  • Sharif, Sally. 2023. “How Wartime Bonds Affect Ex-Combatant Political Attitudes: A Natural Experiment with the FARC.” Terrorism and Political Violence 35(5): 1106–1125. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2021.2017895. 
  • Overton, Kathryn L., and Sally Sharif. 2023. “Agents with Principles? Preventing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence with Human Rights Laws and Norms.” Human Rights Quarterly 45(3): 487–512. https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2023.a903336. 
  • Sharif, Sally. 2022. “Can the Rebel Body Function without Its Visible Heads? The Role of Mid-Level Commanders in Peacebuilding.” International Peacekeeping 29(5): 709–740. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2022.2128337.