Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey, renowned Liberian scholar-activist and author, has won The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) inaugural Rising Star Impact Prize for her groundbreaking book, Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia.
“I’ve always been intentional about pursuing research with real world relevance,” she said in a Facebook post after being honored in late June 2025. The Rising Star Impact Prize is an annual award designed to celebrate real-world impact achieved by an early-career academic researcher at the LSE. This prestigious recognition is one of seven prizes celebrating public engagement by scholars from across the School, including Outstanding PhD Researcher Impact, The Spark Award for Innovation, Outstanding Individual Impact, Outstanding Engagement, Outstanding Impact Culture, and Outstanding Team Impact.
The prizes champion research that leads to the betterment of society, underscoring the LSE’s longstanding commitment to fostering positive impact. Winners receive both a certificate and cash award. To be considered, applicants must undergo a rigorous process of selection, submitting a detailed application that convinces the judges of their work’s excellence, merit, and impact. Entries are thoroughly scrutinized by the judging panel before a winner is selected.
In an email exchange with the Daily Observer, Professor Elizabeth Stokoe, LSE Academic Director for Impact, noted that although the selection panel faced difficult decisions in selecting winners of the inaugural prizes,”Robtel’s work stood out as an example of the impact that can be achieved even early in one’s [academic] career.”
In her book Development, (Dual) and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia, Dr. Pailey illustrates the promise and pitfalls of legislating dual citizenship in Liberia. She draws on in-depth interviews with over 200 Liberians based in Monrovia, Freetown, Accra, London, and Washington, D.C. to show that as Liberia changed from a country of immigration to one of emigration, so too did the nature of citizenship, thus influencing arguments for and against dual citizenship. Dr. Pailey also demonstrates how historical policy changes on citizenship and contemporary public discourse on dual citizenship have affected development policy and practice in Liberia.
In December 2021, Dr. Pailey presented her research findings and policy recommendations to the Plenary of Liberia’s Senate, during which she argued that minimizing socio-economic inequalities would allay domestic Liberians’ concerns since many “see dual citizenship as a zero-sum game, infringing upon their already limited access to political, economic and social rights.” She advised policymakers to find a compromise between furthering Liberians’ aspirations abroad and addressing Liberians’ anxieties at home.
Her two-page policy brief and oral presentation were used by the Senate Judiciary Committee in May 2022 to revise that body’s version of a dual citizenship bill that had been forwarded by the House of Representatives for concurrence in November 2021. In July 2022, the Legislature passed a dual citizenship law allowing Liberians to hold onto their Liberian citizenship by birth or ancestry if they obtain the citizenship of another country.
According to Professor Stokoe, Dr. Pailey’s work was chosen by the judging panel for its clear impact on legislation and for being an example of excellent policy engagement. She believes that Dr. Pailey would inspire other early career researchers to see real-world impact as something that is within reach. According to Stokoe, Pailey’s success exemplifies how far research can travel beyond academic publishing “in a relatively short period of time, and have the power to create change for good.”
Currently an assistant professor in international social and public policy at the LSE, Dr. Pailey is no stranger to academic accolades. Her book Development, (Dual) and Its Discontents in Africa has been cited by twenty-nine publications across Africa, Europe, North America, and won the 2022 African Politics Conference Group (APCG) Best Book Award as well as the 2023 African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award for Excellence in African Writing.
Dr. Pailey, who served as 177th Independence Day National Orator in July 2024, incorporated many elements of her award-winning book in a widely-read and debated speech entitled ‘A Radical Agenda for Re-imagining Liberia‘. She was inducted into the Order of the Star of Africa, one of Liberia’s highest civilian honors, for her ‘distinguished service to the Republic.’
