Biography
Dani Gilbert is an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University. Her research explores the causes and consequences of hostage taking in international security including projects on rebel kidnapping, hostage recovery policy, and hostage diplomacy. In 2023, Dr. Gilbert was selected to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Before joining the faculty at Northwestern, she was the Edelson Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, an assistant professor of military & strategic studies at the United States Air Force Academy, and a Minerva-Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Gilbert served on Capitol Hill as a senior legislative assistant and appropriations associate. Her current book project examines why and how armed groups kidnap during civil war, which received the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Merze Tate Award for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law, and Politics. She received her Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University; M.A. from the George Washington University and the London School of Economics; and B.A. in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University.
