Basil Bastaki

Contact:

115 Prospect Street, Rosenkranz Hall, New Haven, CT 06520 basil.bastaki@yale.edu

Fields of Interest:

• Comparative Politics
• Formal Theory
• Qualitative Methods

Bio:

Broadly speaking, Basil is interested in state formation and peace studies. His regional focus is the Brahmaputra River Basin and Ganges Delta, encompassing Bengal, Northeast India, and parts of Western Myanmar. His approach is post-positivist, broadly realist, and methodologically plural; he is sensitive to case context but oriented to generalization.

Basil currently researches the origins of political parties and party systems in colonial Assam. How did they mediate between traditional political institutions and modern legislative assemblies? What were their long-term legacies? How can we revise theories of party origins in Western and Postcolonial societies?

Under Review:

• (with Paul Staniland and Bryan Popoola) Finessing the Hobbesian Dilemma: Ending and Stabilizing Internal Conflicts in South Asia

Education:

• Language Certificates, The American Institute of Indian Studies (Kolkata), 2021-2023
• M.A. in International Relations, The University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations, 2020
• B.S. in Foreign Service, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, 2015

Languages:

Bengali (Advanced)

Arabic (Professional)