Bupe Lughano Kabaghe ‘24

Bupe Lughano Kabaghe is a senior researching women's representation and participation in the Zambian National Assembly for her senior thesis and capstone. Her capstone focuses on the pathways to political leadership for Zambian women with an emphasis on participation and representation. For her political science thesis, she focuses on the direct impact of elected women MPs on government policies and decisions. This past summer, she spent her time conducting interviews with elected women MPs and politicians and conducting archival research in Lusaka, Zambia. Kabaghe also attended the Women’s Deliver conference in Rwanda, where she engaged with high-level women political leaders and activists. This coming December, she will be presenting her research findings as part of a panel on Governance in Africa: Contemporary and Historical Trends at the African Studies Association conference in San Francisco. With her ISP adviser, she is working on reading and providing feedback on drafted chapters of an upcoming book on informal associations in Mali - how they compare to others in urban Africa.

Kabaghe is a Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar and a recipient of the Kellogg/Kroc Undergraduate Research Grant. She has worked with the University of Denver on a study of youth political participation in Zambia. She collected and entered data on the behavior of youth towards civil engagement following a WhatsApp civic education course, and she observed and analyzed the political environment leading up to the historic August 12th Presidential and Local Government elections in Zambia. She also conducted various youth empowerment projects for her Non-Governmental Organization, Abana Afrika Foundation, which seeks to empower the next generation of Zambian youth.