AEI Welcomes Dr. Alia Braley as New Director of Research and Education

January 8, 2026 — The Albert Einstein Institution is thrilled to welcome Alia Braley to the team! As Director of Research & Education at AEI, Dr. Alia Braley will lead the development of research-driven educational resources on strategic nonviolent action. Her work bridges academic scholarship and movement-facing practice, with a focus on how communities organize, sustain discipline, and defend democratic space under repression. She brings deep familiarity with AEI’s intellectual tradition, having previously worked directly under Gene Sharp and contributed to the institution’s core programs.

At AEI, Alia will oversee research agenda-setting, curriculum development, and the integration of contemporary social science into accessible training materials. Her role is central to ensuring that AEI’s educational work remains analytically rigorous, strategically grounded, and directly useful to movements confronting authoritarian pressure today.

More on Alia Braley’s bio:

Alia is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with formal training in international relations, comparative politics, and quantitative methods. Her research examines democratic backsliding, political psychology, repression, and collective action, including why citizens who value democracy may nonetheless participate in its erosion. She has held research appointments at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute, MIT Media Lab, and the World Bank, combining large-scale data analysis with qualitative insights into political behavior and social movements.

In parallel with her academic work, Alia has extensive experience supporting nonviolent movements and training practitioners. She has taught and presented widely on civil resistance, democratic defense, and mental health considerations in movement strategy, and has contributed to the design of workshops, fellowships, and curricula used by activists across diverse contexts. Her writing has appeared in academic and policy venues and has been cited in major public discourse on nonviolent alternatives to violent extremism.