Ashley Moran

Ashley McIlvain Moran is a research scientist in UT’s Department of Government. She co-directs UT’s Center for Law and Democracy supporting work at the nexus of public law and political science, as well as the Embedded Scholars Program training students to work in democracy assistance abroad and Concept Integration in Comparative Law project using digital tools to improve constitutional design. She is co-editor-in-chief of Constitutional Studies, associate director of the Comparative Constitutions Project, chair of the IPSA Comparative Judicial Studies research group, and board member for Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).

Overseas, she previously worked as parliamentary advisor in Georgia for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), ran democratic reform programs and trainings in Azerbaijan and Iraq for NDI, and designed rule of law programs in Kyrgyzstan for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Ashley’s research and teaching focus on constitutional development in divided societies, court elaboration of new constitutions, and democracy in difficult contexts. She received BAs in Government and Sociology from The University of Texas at Austin, an MA in Comparative Law and Development Economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a PhD in Government from The University of Texas at Austin.