Dr Rebecca Tapscott
- Senior Lecturer in International Relations (Political & International Studies)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191Biography
Rebecca Tapscott is a political scientist whose work studies how authoritarian power is produced and contested. Her main research interests include how the state produces and projects political power; the relationship between gender, citizenship, and state authority; and how these processes can be studied ethically—as well as the politics of how these determinations is made. Her work has focused largely on Uganda, with a broader interest how these processes unfold in the so-called “global South”. Rebecca is the author of "Arbitrary States: Social control and modern authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda" (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Before joining Glasgow in 2024, Rebecca held a post-doc and then an Ambizione Research Fellowship at the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy (2017-2023), and then a Lecturer at York from 2023-24. Rebecca has also held Visiting Fellowships at the London School of Economics, Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa and at the University of Edinburgh’s Politics and International Relations Department. She holds a PhD from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is a recipient of the Fletcher School’s Alfred Rubin Prize in International Law (2011) and the International Studies Association’s Carl Beck award for innovative research on emergent international concerns (2017).
Rebecca is a member of the UK Young Academy (2024-2029). She is also the Reviews Editor at Civil Wars, an Associate Editor at Research Ethics, and a Board Member of the International Studies Review.
Rebecca is interested in supervising PhD studies working on authoritarianism, political violence, gender, and research ethics, especially from a critical perspective.
Research interests
- Authoritarianism
- Political violence
- Policing and vigilantism
- Gender, especially masculinities
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Research ethics and its regulation
Research groups
Publications
2025
Tapscott, Rebecca 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191 and Moxon, Sophie
(2025)
Vulnerability in procedural ethics: a study of 44 national research ethics guidelines.
Qualitative Research,
(doi: 10.1177/14687941251377266)
(Early Online Publication)
Moulton, Jeremy and Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2025)
Ethical considerations for SoTL research in political science education.
PS: Political Science and Politics,
(doi: 10.1017/S1049096525101285)
(Early Online Publication)
Dionigi, Filippo, Howlett, Marnie, Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191, Otrishchenko, Natalia, Akello, Grace, Mukherjee, Mousumi and Shesterinina, Anastasia
(2025)
Forum: Rethinking ethics review for international relations research.
International Studies Perspectives,
(doi: 10.1093/isp/ekaf004)
(Early Online Publication)
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2025)
“Beneficence” and its discontents: a call to revisit the role of the IRB in social and political science research.
Global Perspectives, 6(1),
133863.
(doi: 10.1525/gp.2025.133863)
2024
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2024)
What is Institutional Ethics Review, and Why is it (Still) so Unsatisfactory for the Social Sciences?
Other.
University of Glasgow.
(Unpublished)
2021
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2021)
Arbitrary States: Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda.
Oxford University Press.
ISBN 9780198856474
(doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198856474.001.0001)
Articles
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191 and Moxon, Sophie
(2025)
Vulnerability in procedural ethics: a study of 44 national research ethics guidelines.
Qualitative Research,
(doi: 10.1177/14687941251377266)
(Early Online Publication)
Moulton, Jeremy and Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2025)
Ethical considerations for SoTL research in political science education.
PS: Political Science and Politics,
(doi: 10.1017/S1049096525101285)
(Early Online Publication)
Dionigi, Filippo, Howlett, Marnie, Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191, Otrishchenko, Natalia, Akello, Grace, Mukherjee, Mousumi and Shesterinina, Anastasia
(2025)
Forum: Rethinking ethics review for international relations research.
International Studies Perspectives,
(doi: 10.1093/isp/ekaf004)
(Early Online Publication)
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2025)
“Beneficence” and its discontents: a call to revisit the role of the IRB in social and political science research.
Global Perspectives, 6(1),
133863.
(doi: 10.1525/gp.2025.133863)
Books
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2021)
Arbitrary States: Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda.
Oxford University Press.
ISBN 9780198856474
(doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198856474.001.0001)
Research Reports or Papers
Tapscott, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-5191
(2024)
What is Institutional Ethics Review, and Why is it (Still) so Unsatisfactory for the Social Sciences?
Other.
University of Glasgow.
(Unpublished)
Prior publications
Other
Edward Goldring, Rebecca Tapscott (2026) Succession in Uganda: What Do Ugandan Citizens Think of Muhoozi Kainerugaba? Crossref. (doi: 10.1093/afraf/adag014)
Rebecca Tapscott (2019) Conceptualizing Militias in Africa Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics Rebecca Tapscott. ISBN 9780190228637 (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.834)
Article
Rebecca Tapscott, Daniel Rincón Machón (2025) Procedural ethics for social science research: Introducing the Research Ethics Governance dataset Journal of Peace Research Crossref. (doi: 10.1177/00223433241249352)
Rebecca Tapscott, Eliza Urwin (2024) The Origins and Legacies of Unpredictability in Rebel-Incumbent Rule Civil Wars Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1743-968X (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2024.2302731)
Rebecca Tapscott, Daniel Rincón Machón (2023) 25 Years of Civil Wars: Identifying Key Developments Through the Reviews Section Civil Wars Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1743-968X (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2023.2253617)
Rebecca Tapscott, Daniel Rincón Machón (2023) Reviews, Otherwise: Introducing the New Reviews Section of Civil Wars Civil Wars Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1743-968X (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2023.2253618)
Anna Macdonald, Arthur Owor, Rebecca Tapscott (2023) Explaining youth political mobilization and its absence: the case of Bobi Wine and Uganda’s 2021 election Journal of Eastern African Studies Crossref. (doi: 10.1080/17531055.2023.2235661)
Rebecca Tapscott (2023) Vigilantes and the State: Understanding Violence through a Security Assemblages Approach Perspectives on Politics Crossref. (doi: 10.1017/S1537592721001134)
Rebecca Tapscott (2021) How Insurgency Begins: Rebel Group Formation in Uganda and Beyond. By Janet I. Lewis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 300p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper. Perspectives on Politics Crossref. (doi: 10.1017/S1537592721000347)
Rebecca Tapscott (2020) Militarized masculinity and the paradox of restraint: mechanisms of social control under modern authoritarianism International Affairs Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1468-2346 (doi: 10.1093/ia/iiaa163)
Francis Abonga, Raphael Kerali, Holly Porter, Rebecca Tapscott (2020) Naked Bodies and Collective Action: Repertoires of Protest in Uganda’s Militarised, Authoritarian Regime Civil Wars Crossref. (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2020.1680018)
Rebecca Tapscott (2018) Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict‐affected northern Uganda Disasters Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1467-7717 (doi: 10.1111/disa.12274)
Rebecca Tapscott (2017) The Government Has Long Hands: Institutionalized Arbitrariness and Local Security Initiatives in Northern Uganda Development and Change Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1467-7660 (doi: 10.1111/dech.12294)
Rebecca Tapscott (2017) Local security and the (un)making of public authority in Gulu, Northern Uganda African Affairs Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1468-2621 (doi: 10.1093/afraf/adw040)
Rebecca Tapscott (2016) Where the wild things are not: crime preventers and the 2016 Ugandan elections Journal of Eastern African Studies Rebecca Tapscott. ISSN 1753-1063 (doi: 10.1080/17531055.2016.1272283)
Book Section
Rebecca Tapscott (2024) Institutionalized Arbitrariness as Autocratic Adaptability Autocratization in Contemporary Uganda: Clientelism, Coercion and Social Control Rebecca Tapscott.
Report
Rebecca Tapscott (2012) Understanding Breast “Ironing”: A Study of the Methods, Motivations, and Outcomes of Breast Flattening Practices in Cameroon Rebecca Tapscott.
