Dr. Goran Hyden is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and African Studies at the University of Florida. Significantly attracted by UF’s Center for African Studies, Dr. Hyden first came to UF in 1986. Over several decades his research began focused on rural cooperatives and public administration to the political economy of the peasantry to democratization and governance in Africa. His book, African Politics in Comparative Perspective (2006) is well known and widely-used in both undergraduate and graduate African Politics courses.Dr. Hyden first became interested in African politics in high school. He distinctly remembers Ghana’s independence in March 1957 as he received high marks for a paper he wrote on the significance of that event. He continued studying African politics at the University of Lund, though the absence of scholars working in Africa meant he spent part of his time also at Oxford University and UCLA. At UCLA, Dr. Hyden worked under the guidance of Dr. James Smoot Coleman, a political scientist and founding director of UCLA’s African Studies Center. Beginning in 1964, Dr. Hyden spent several years in East Africa, conducting research in northwestern Tanzania and working as a Visiting Lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda. He subsequently returned to Sweden to finish his dissertation and graduated in 1968. Dr. Hyden then taught at the University of Nairobi (1968-71) and the University of Dar es Salaam (1971-77).
Between 1978 and 1985, Dr. Hyden worked for the Ford Foundation as a Social Science Research Advisor, and later Director of the regional office, based in Nairobi. After spending a one-year sabbatical at Dartmouth University, Dr. Hyden joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1986 (with recognition given to Hunt Davis for helping to convince him). During his time at UF, Dr. Hyden has chaired at least 15 doctoral committees and served on countless others. He served as the President of the ASA in 1995 and won the ASA’s Distinguished Africanist Award in 2015, making him the first political scientist to win the award since Ali A. Mazrui in 1995. He retired in 2008 but remains active in the academic community by attending Baraza presentations at UF, occasionally reviewing manuscripts and articles, and attending academic conferences. After attending the ASA meeting in Washington DC, Dr. Hyden flew to Japan to present his work on the ‘economy of affection’ at a conference focused on the moral economy.