Britt Leake is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science. His research focuses on understanding the conditions under which democracy succeeds or fails in societies with extensive ethnolinguistic or religious diversity. His dissertation project uses John Rawls’s theory of public reason as a frame through which to examine historical cases from four countries (Canada, India, Lebanon, and Spain) in which different cultural groups tried to make compromises on the terms of a social contract that would be legitimate in the eyes of each group. Britt’s research on Canada will focus on the late twentieth century, when the Canadian state tried with mixed success to renegotiate its relationship with its Francophone and Indigenous minorities.
Britt holds a B.A. and M.A. in international studies, and B.A.s in Arabic and French from the University of Oklahoma.
