Kelly Morrison
Faculty Affiliate, Global Security Program
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Fields of Interest: International Security, Political Violence, International Organizations, Democracy
Phone: 865-974-2261 • Email: kelly.morrison@utk.edu

Kelly Morrison is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and a Global Security Faculty Affiliate at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. Morrison specializes in international relations and comparative politics with a focus on human rights, democratic institutions and international organizations. Her research has been published in Democratization and the Journal of Politics.
Morrison’s work seeks to explain when democratic institutions and international organizations can (1) promote respect for human rights and (2) reduce political violence. She uses a variety of methods to explore these issues, including cross-national statistical analysis and survey experiments. Her research applies across countries, though her research interests focus on Latin America and the United States.
Morrison was a post-doctoral fellow at the Varieties of Democracy Institute. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburg in 2021.