Kristin Fabbe

Kristin Fabbe is a Jakurski Family associate professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit. Her primary expertise is in comparative politics, with a regional focus on the greater Mediterranean region. Her first book, Disciples of the State: Religion and State-Building in the Former Ottoman World (Cambridge University Press, 2019) examines the role of religious elites, institutions, and attachments in state-building and modernization initiatives in Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. She is currently researching a second major project on social cohesion and crises, particularly economic shocks, severe austerity measures, and large demographic changes. In other work, Kristin uses surveys and qualitative methods to examine legacies of violence, post-conflict reconciliation, refugees and forced-migration, secularization, democratic durability and state-business relations. She has conducted fieldwork in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus.

At HBS, Kristin teaches the course Globalization and Emerging Markets. Previously she taught Business, Government and the International Economy in the MBA required curriculum. She also has taught in several executive education programs, including the Agribusiness Seminar and SELPME (Senior Executive Leadership Management Program, Middle East).

Kristin is a faculty affiliate at the Middle East Initiative at the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center and the Harvard Center for European Studies. She sits on the steering committee of Harvard’s Center for Middle East Studies and the AlWaleed Islamic Studies Program. She is an Associate Editor at the Review of Middle East Studies.

Professor Fabbe received her PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also holds an MSc in international relations from the London School of Economics and a BA in history from Lewis and Clark College. Before joining HBS, she was an associate professor of government and international relations at Claremont McKenna College.