Deborah Sike is a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public and International Affairs. Her research seeks to answer three questions: (1) how do youth-led digital movements and decentralized, horizontal networks interact with hybrid regimes in the Global South; (2) what mechanisms do authoritarian and hybrid states deploy to repress digital activism, and how do these tactics drive citizens to shift their strategies from voice to exit; and (3) what are the long-term implications of these digital dynamics for the strength, resilience, and survival of democratic institutions?
- MA Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, 2025
- BS Communication and Multimedia Design, American University of Nigeria, 2022
Education & Training
Research Interests
- Non-violent Civil resistance movements
- Youth Digital Mobilization vs. Institutional Change
- Social Movements
- Democratic Backsliding
- Hybrid Regimes
- Regime Change & Type
- State Repression
- Digital Technology
